Warrior's Tempest
by Renegade Bladesman
Summary: Another day in Furinkan turns horribly wrong when a rift opens during a heated fight between Ryoga and Ranma. Co-written with FantomoDrako.
1. Of Rifts and UFOs

Throngs of people walked up and down, wending their way through the crowds and various buildings, hurrying along on whatever errand they needed to do. There was a lot of noise; vendors were shouting out their wares, parents were warning children to stay close and friends were happily chatting to each other.

A travel-worn young man ignored everything about him, his eyes briefly glancing up to track the position of the sun. With any luck, he would run across a nice place to order a cheap yet filling lunch as he had been walking for a few hours now and, apart from being very hungry, he was also low on money.

Ryoga heaved a weary sigh and rounded a corner, colliding with somebody and sending them falling backwards. Reflexes kicking in, Ryoga's hand flashed out and caught the person by the wrist, steadying them.

Once they were both standing properly again, the woman Ryoga had bumped into gave him a grateful smile. "Oh, my, thank you for stopping my fall. I'm sorry for running into you like that, I wasn't watching where I was going very well," she said with a small bow of her head.

"I was the one that ran into you, really. Sorry about that, but saving you was no problem, Kasumi," Ryoga easily replied. It took a second for his brain to register what he had just said. "K-Kasumi?!" he stuttered, taking a step back in surprise, "What are you doing in Hokkaido? Or am I back in Nerima?"

"Oh, you're in Nerima," she answered, smiling brightly at him. "Why don't you come back with me and have some lunch? I just finished shopping and was on my way back there."

Ryoga Hibiki's stomach chose that moment to gurgle loudly, making him blush and duck his head in embarrassment. "L-lunch sounds g-great…"

Kasumi's smile only seemed to grow brighter at this and she promptly started walking back to the Tendo residence, humming a little tune to herself while surreptitiously keeping an eye on the Lost Boy.

* * *

A plate was placed in front of him, the black, brown and yellow lump residing on it vaguely resembling food. It sat there, mocking him, testing his courage.

The slim hand that had placed the plate down retreated, joining its owner's other hand as she clasped them in front of her. Akane waited as patiently as she could, eager for her reluctant fiancé to take a bite. She had worked so hard on that meal, following the recipe in her cookbook and toiling for ages in the kitchen, washing, chopping, slicing and baking. Akane just knew that this time she had done it right; there was no way Ranma would have anything bad to say.

Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, suppressed a shudder of horror that ran through him. He could take down monsters like Pantyhose Taro's cursed form without hesitation; take on demons and spirits without batting an eyelash, but nothing frightened him more - except, perhaps, cats - than Akane's cooking. The youngest Tendo's skills in the kitchen were legendary. Legendarily bad. Her cooking could lay him low quicker than any of his enemies, and he had suffered through too many crippling stomach aches to trust any food she presented him with that was made with her own two hands.

Nabiki had escaped the house when Kasumi left, as she was smart enough to realise that Akane would take full advantage of the empty kitchen.

Soun and Genma, however, were not so fortunate. They sat at the low table wearing the same anxious expression of trepidation that Ranma bore. Desperate to get out of their current predicament, Genma nodded to Soun and received a grim smile in reply.

"Boy, aren't you grateful to have such a dutiful fiancée? You should eat the food she lovingly prepared!" Genma said with unnecessary dramatic flair, standing up and pointing at his son.

Soun Tendo stood beside his long-time friend, tears streaming down his face. "What love, what devotion! Ranma, you wouldn't upset my little girl by refusing to eat, would you?"

Ranma frowned at the pair and said, "Why don't _you_ eat some then?"

Soun started wailing harder, but Genma had a retort. "It is your duty as her fiancé to try anything she makes before anyone else does!"

Kasumi and Ryoga had just stepped inside when the loud voices, easily identifiable by both, reached their ears.

In the Tendo's hallway, Ryoga turned to Kasumi and asked, "What's going on?"

Kasumi's smile faltered slightly, but she headed for the main room, Ryoga closely following. He had offered to carry Kasumi's shopping bags like a gentleman, and as further apology for nearly knocking her down. He could not put them down until she led him into the kitchen where they needed to be dropped off.

So, with shopping bags in each hand, Ryoga stopped beside the eldest Tendo daughter to take in the scene before him.

Ranma was half-kneeling, half-crouching with one hand flat upon the table - next to a plate covered in an unknown substance - and the other curled into a fist beside his head.

Soun and Genma were both standing at the opposite end of the table, gesturing and crying respectively, while Akane stood off to one side. Her hands were balled into fists, her shoulders were squared, her head bent - letting her hair fall over her face - and she was trembling.

"Oh, my…" said Kasumi, trailing off sadly. It was not hard to guess, for those that knew the Saotomes and the Tendos, just what had happened.

"Enough!" Akane shouted.

The three in the room - and the two onlookers - were stunned into silence, freezing in whatever position they were in when Akane's voice cut through the air.

"I know I'm not the world's greatest cook, alright? You could at least try one bite! You're always shovelling down whatever Shampoo and Ukyo make for you!" Akane continued loudly, desperately trying to hold back the tears that were welling at the corners of her eyes.

At that, Ranma stood up and faced her. "I'd rather have someone who _isn't_ uncute, violent as a gorilla, built like a brick and whose cooking _doesn't_ make me fatally sick!" he yelled, unable to stop himself.

Akane sucked in a breath and flinched back as though Ranma had physically struck her. The tears that she had been holding back now slipped silently, unchecked, down her cheeks.

Their fathers looked as if they were about to step in and put a stop to the argument, but Akane's aura flared to life at that moment, glowing bright red and giving off enough heat to affect the entire room, making the air seem thicker; stifling.

Soun and Genma hastily backed away from the enraged girl lest she unleash her wrath upon them.

"Ha, you don't even need to be splashed with cold water to act like a little girl!" Akane rallied back. "You rotten jerk; I never want to see you again!" With that said, Akane whirled and ran from the room, her elbow accidentally knocking into Ryoga's arm on her way past.

Ranma was too full of anger to feel sorry for upsetting her and settled for simply glaring at the floor.

Ryoga was angry as well. The target for his fury was, of course, Ranma Saotome. Ryoga wordlessly handed the shopping bags to Kasumi, who accepted them in equal silence, and cracked his knuckles, the noise sounding unnaturally loud in the tense atmosphere.

Ranma glanced up at the noise and, for the first time, realised that Kasumi was back and had brought a very familiar guest home with her. The pigtailed boy took in Ryoga's furious expression and darted out of the room - the opposite direction from the one Akane had taken - and landed in the backyard, flicking his gaze backwards as a signal for Ryoga to follow. Ranma knew that if they fought here, they would get in trouble for wrecking the yard, so he was leading the other boy far away. A fight was just what he needed to vent his frustration.

Ryoga, with an inarticulate growl of rage, sprang after his enemy, the two of them traversing town by hopping along the rooftops.

The two martial artists continued like this for a couple of minutes; Ryoga hurling the occasional bandanna and Ranma dodging the buzz saw-like projectiles, leaving them to destroy whatever they flew into.

"Ranma!" the Lost Boy howled, "You're gonna pay for making Akane cry!"

The young Saotome heir abandoned the aerial route and sprinted, stopping a short distance away. His chosen battlefield was the soccer field behind Furinkan High School.

It did not take long for Ryoga to catch up and Ranma instantly launched a taunt. "I'm ready whenever you are, pig-boy!"

Ryoga grit his teeth and growled again, his eyes narrowing to focus solely on the target of his ire. Drawing his red bamboo umbrella, much like someone unsheathing a sword, Ryoga thrust forward, the tip of the umbrella on course with Ranma's stomach.

The pigtailed boy smoothly dodged and spun, extending his leg and sending his foot sailing for the other boy's head.

Ryoga, not having enough time to block, leaned back. He felt Ranma's foot whistle past his nose, too close for comfort. He lashed out with his own foot, aiming for Ranma's torso and forcing the agile martial artist to leap backwards, putting some space between them and giving Ryoga a second's worth of breathing room.

Ranma, realising this, therefore immediately threw himself at the Lost Boy with a shout of, "Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken!"

Ryoga was not fast enough to block all of the punches, but the few that penetrated his guard had no effect against him due to the Breaking Point training. Ignoring that attack for the most part, Ryoga brought his umbrella swinging through the air in a diagonal arc, once again forcing Ranma to leap away. While his foe was still in the air, Ryoga drove his right index finger into the ground while yelling, "Bakusai Tenketsu!"

Ranma, in midair, shielded himself from the resulting explosion of rock and dirt as best he could. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he twisted his body to one side and felt Ryoga barrel past, charging like a bull at a matador. "You're bein' sloppy, Mr. P!"

"Shut up!" Ryoga snapped, whirling around to find Ranma standing in a lazy pose - as though Ryoga was not worth the effort - and smirking at him in an infuriating manner. The Lost Boy crossed his arms in front of his chest and focused his ki as his mind readily supplied him with a multitude of depressing thoughts.

Ranma recognised the stance in a heartbeat and started focusing his own ki as he gathered up his vast reserve of confidence.

The two squared off and stared each other down for a few moments.

"Shishi Hôkô-Dan!"

"Mōko Takabisha!"

Two blindingly bright horizontal columns, one yellow and the other red, collided with a roar.

The clash of their energy had never been so loud before and, as their attacks cancelled each other out, a strange wind picked up.

The wind began blowing upwards, headed for a particular spot in the sky. Leaves and dust, picked up by the wind, vanished into thin air as they reached this point. Moments later, a strange tear appeared as though someone had sliced straight through the very air itself.

"What the…?" Ranma muttered, ignoring the Lost Boy in order to focus upon the strange phenomenon.

Ryoga, too, abandoned the fight to gaze at the rift in the sky. "What the hell is that thing?!" he asked Ranma, shouting to be heard over the wind that was picking up strength and speed.

"I dunno, but it don't look good!" the pigtailed one replied.

The two teens gasped as the wind howled viciously, struggling to stay on the ground. A tree nearby came loose with a great crack as roots were split while the tree was torn from the ground. The fence creaked, giving off metallic screeches as it buckled under the pressure before breaking, a good portion of it following the tree into the air where they both abruptly vanished once they reached the rift.

"We need to find shelter and fast!" Ranma yelled, signalling what he meant in case the other boy couldn't hear him.

Ryoga nodded and the two fought to take each step, heading for the nearest classroom at an agonisingly slow pace. Another section of the school's fence and two more trees had torn loose and been sucked up before the pair made it, just about to jump through the closest window when the wind tugged at them ferociously.

Ranma, being the lighter of the two, could not keep his footing any longer and was lifted into the air. He flailed his arms, desperately trying to find something to hold on to. Ranma felt something clamp around his ankle and was about to yell when he caught sight of what it was.

Ryoga had hooked an arm through the window and had grabbed Ranma with his other hand. The bandanna-clad youth gritted his teeth, baring his fangs in a silent snarl as he fought the forces of Mother Nature.

Of course, Mother Nature is not a foe that anyone can best.

With a shout of terror, Ryoga's arm slid back out of the window and the two boys went flying through the air, closing their eyes just before they reached the rift, missing the bright flash of multicoloured light that burst forth, the tear closing after the light faded.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a different universe, the sounds of battle echoed across a barren landscape. Explosions created gusts of wind which conveniently cleared most of the light debris from the field, making it easier for the battle to continue.

"Damned bastard! You've gotten better since our last battle, but you're still not stronger than me!" A harsh voice echoed from a crater before a man climbed out of it. He stood tall, his spiky red hair shining with sweat. His right arm was covered in gold armour; his hand was covered in bright red armour that also had small claws at the end of each finger.

Upon his back were three red spikes, all pointing slightly upwards and always to the right. As he took a step forward, he fell into a typical fighter's stance. "Well, what are you going to say, Ryuho?" he taunted the other man who stood some distance from him.

"If I'm not as strong as you, then how is it you've yet to lay one single blow on me?" Ryuho retorted, his green hair also soaked with sweat, his blue and white uniform showing minimal damage from flying debris. Near him stood a smaller humanoid, also coloured blue and white. This smaller humanoid resembled a young woman whose arms were permanently crossed within a tight-fitting and armless jumpsuit.

The head of this smaller humanoid seemed to be encased in a near perfect sphere, one half of the front open to reveal half a face. The single eye that was shown focused intently on its target.

"Well, Kazuma, I'm waiting," Ryuho taunted, knowing full well that it would work.

"Damn you!" Kazuma yelled, bringing his fist to his hip sharply like a martial artist preparing to strike, the armour on his forearm opened out and two backward facing spikes appearing at the outward points of the armour.

The sound of cracking filled the air as one of the spikes on Kazuma's back crumbled, he took a couple of steps forward before being propelled by a jet of green-tinged energy, his hand cocked and ready to strike. As he flew through the air towards Ryuho, his voice rang out.

"SHOCKING… FIRST… BULLET!"

Ryuho had been waiting for this and moved quickly, motioning with an open hand towards a very rapidly moving Kazuma and also yelling "Zetsuei!" The small humanoid moved at near blurring speeds, two ribbons that attached to its neck extended and wrapped themselves around Kazuma's right hand, then, while pivoting, it flung him into a nearby pile of boulders.

No cry of pain followed the impact, instead laughter echoed throughout the battleground. "You know, I never quite enjoyed our last fight like I am here; no rules, no time limits, just you and me," Kazuma said, pulling himself out of the impression left in the rubble.

"Quite true, this fight is rather entertaining, now, enough talk; Zetsuei!" Ryuho called, willing his alter to attack, which it did with near-lethal force, once again wrapping its ribbons around him and hauling him within kicking distance. Once he was there, Zetsuei wasted no time in kicking him in the chest and head a couple of times before throwing him high into the air.

Kazuma corrected his body while in the air, thrusting his elbow back he squared his sights onto Zetsuei, soon after the second of the spikes upon his back crumbled away, thrusting his hand forward, he was propelled forward at amazing speeds, and once again his voice boomed forth.

"ANNIHILATING… SECOND… BULLET!"

Zetsuei instinctively placed its ribbons in a cross pattern in front of it, forming a shield as Kazuma's fist crashed into it, however the added force behind his punch proved much more than it could handle as the shield gave way, allowing Kazuma's attack to strike, albeit with significantly less power.

Ryuho felt the strike as well as both he and his alter were knocked back several metres. As he looked over, he saw the damage that it had sustained from that last strike, it was still able to fight, but it looked like it had just survived a freeway pile-up.

Smiling, Ryuho stood and faced Kazuma, who only smiled in return as he reset his fighting stance, changing his focus to the severely battered Zetsuei.

"Well, looks like you're holding back, Ryuho," Kazuma stated, a trace of anger lapping on those words.

"And if I am?" Ryuho taunted in reply.

"Don't," Kazuma sneered, once again thrusting his elbow back, "or you'll get hurt," he added, smiling as the last of the spikes crumbled away. He jumped forward just as the propulsion kicked in, the jet of energy streaming out of his right shoulder-blade as he flew towards Ryuho, his voice once again reverberating around the area.

"EXTERMINATING… LAST… BULLET!"

Ryuho hesitated for a moment as he realised that he was the target of Kazuma's final assault. He focused his sight on the rapidly approaching man. His cry rang out in equal volume to Kazuma.

"ZETSUEI!"

The Alter sprang into life, glowing slightly as it transformed. After the glow subsided, it resembled a mixture of a man and snake. The top half was that of a very well build man, the ribbons were barely noticeable among the various armour spines that adorned its shoulders, its hands were possessed of long and pointy fingers. On its back were two grey coloured, spear-like spikes that both angled out and down.

This new form's head was severely elongated, however its face was normal, only that it was fully uncovered and so its two purple eyes stared endlessly at its target. The bottom half of it held little in terms of interesting features, save the four blades that adored the end of the tail, which appeared as though any tip that it once had was cut off. The two halves were not physically joined, both seemed to be linked by invisible tethers that extended from two halves of a large green orb that sat at the start of the tail, and approximately where the solar plexus would be on the top half.

Its speed was near blinding as it launched itself at Kazuma, tackling him mid-air and crashing him into a larger pile of rubble that was located nearby. After sufficiently embedding him into the stone, the second form of Zetsuei retreated to Ryuho's side.

"So, who's holding back now?" Ryuho taunted the winded Kazuma.

"Shut up," Kazuma bit back, an iridescent glow surrounding him as the rubble around him exploded into nothing, as did his right arm.

A metal faceplate formed around his right eye, which throughout the battle so far had remained closed. As it finally opened, his shoulder began to reform; bright red armour covered it as a curved, whip-like appendage appeared on his shoulder-blade. The rest of his arm was the same gold coloured armour as before, the forearm was larger and seemed able to split right down the middle.

His fist was significantly different, it was made up of a single disk of gold armour, and at the centre of the top of it was a small, grey coloured disk that seemed able to open. His fingers seemed to grow from this otherwise thin disk. A metal strap seemed to constrain his wrist, but otherwise seemed only for decoration than any practical use.

"So, shall we start the _real_ fight now?" Kazuma mocked, looking at the dishevelled condition of his opponent.

"We've been waiting on you, now, let's end this, Zetsuei!" Ryuho retorted, to which his Alter sprang into action, flying straight at its target so fast it was nearly invisible.

Kazuma barely had time to blink before he was slammed by Zetsuei, the blow temporarily making his senses fade out and at the same time, making him lose all sense of where he was and what he was doing.

A moment later he recovered his senses and jumped out of the way, still feeling the wake as Zetsuei flew past at break-neck speeds. As Kazuma took a breath, he extended his right hand, which opened up in all directions, as it did, many small craters appeared around him, and the iridescent mist that replaced them was sucked into a vortex that was contained under the disk on his fist. After a moment the vortex closed, and the appendage on his back began to spin rapidly, lifting him up into the air.

His fist began to shine brightly as he did so and he slowly rotated in the air, completing a full 360 degree revolution when he had reached the height that he so desired. Smiling wickedly, he focused on Zetsuei and launched himself at it, his voice ringing out as he flew.

"SHELL BULLET BURST!"

His speed was near blinding as he flew, however this did little to counter the distance that Zetsuei had put between them. Ryuho, meanwhile, had already planned the counter-attack; lifting his hand, he called out "My Tender Fist, Raitsujin!"

Two ribbons exploded from Zetsuei's back, speeding towards Kazuma and wrapping around his arms, stopping him dead in his movement.

"What the…?!" Kazuma called out as the shock of being stopped hit him like an out of control train. Ryuho only smiled at the predicament that he had crafted.

"You're not going to win if all you're going to do is just that, like always," Ryuho said mockingly before extending his hand and calling out, "My Vigorous Right Fist, Fukuryuu!"

The spike on Zetsuei's right glowed briefly and launched, heading for Kazuma's right arm. Kazuma struggled in order to free himself before the missile hit, but it was in vain as the missile sliced straight through the thinner part of his arm, severing it completely.

A cry of pain washed over the battlefield. Not long after that, Zetsuei threw Kazuma to one side, an addition wail of pain came from this, and Kazuma struggled to his feet not long after this and he glared in full fury at Ryuho.

"You're going to pay for that," he said, an iridescent glow surrounding him and his severed arm disintegrated from where it laid. Moments later it had reformed where it was like nothing had happened to it at all.

After this, Kazuma began to glow orange, the appendage on his back spinning wildly once again, bringing him up into the air by a couple of feet. "You're going to pay for that!" he shouted again, this time launching himself straight up about forty feet into the air.

Ryuho knew that Kazuma was truly enraged at this point and so he called upon his power, surrounding both himself and Zetsuei in a muted white glow.

"It seems that your wild instincts have kicked in," Ryuho murmured before whipping his hand out in a lateral arc and shouting "The Vigorous Fists Garyuu! Fukuryuu!" to which both spikes launched from Zetsuei, taking small portions of the glow with them as they sailed skyward towards their target.

"Don't think that's going to work on me either!" The response was faintly audible on the wind as it began to howl wildly around the battleground, numerous small craters opened up, the iridescent mist that was left swirled around in the ferocious winds, which began to funnel skyward.

Ryuho was unable to focus on the battle as he fought with everything he had not to be swept up in the howling wind. He looked over at Zetsuei to notice that the left missile had returned and re-attached itself to the main body, which still held a strong glow. Soon after that, the wind died down, and a strong glow covered everything, colouring all that could be seen to a dull orange.

"SHELL BULLET BURST!" the cry echoed from above as Kazuma began to plummet, being pushed by a jet of greyish coloured energy coming from the centre of the appendage on his back. The orange aura he had leaving a trail in the sky as he flew.

Ryuho wasted no time, extending his hand and crying out "Zetsuei!" to which the Alter leapt upwards and began snaking its way through the sky towards Kazuma. The closer it got, the stronger its aura grew until it was brilliant white against the immense orange aura that emanated from Kazuma. As soon as it got to near point blank range Ryuho called out once again, "The Vigorous Left Fist, Garyuu!"

This command launched the left missile from Zetsuei once again, it flew straight at Kazuma's fist, and when it collided, there was a brilliant flash, lightning crashed around the battleground as the energies collided in the air. After the flash died down, the world seemed frozen, aside from a few sparks of lightning that sprang from the colliding auras that Zetsuei and Kazuma held.

Finally, the clash of the energies erupted, causing a massive explosion, though this was quickly silenced as a greater explosion emanated through the air, the source was a great tear that was at where Kazuma and Zetsuei collided. Not several moments after the tear appeared, a great flash of light covered the Lost Ground.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** My mother is a fuzzy pickle. Er, I mean, we don't own Ranma ½ or s-CRY-ed!

**Author's Notes:**

**FantomoDrako:** Hey, how's it goin'? Yeah, I know, another story. Shame on me. When I actually finish one instead of starting another, you'll know that a miracle has occurred. Despite having watched all 26 episodes of s-CRY-ed, I leave that to my equally insane friend; **Renegade Bladesman**. I'll stick to writing the Ranma ½ sections. Still, we'll both be writing bits and pieces of the other. Have fun trying to spot the difference!

Please leave a review if you have read this, we'd love to have feedback! Constructive criticism is highly appreciated, but flames will be used as portable heaters. My room is like a giant freezer!

**Renegade Bladesman:** G'day! First really serious story on here so I'm hoping I'm living up to expectations here. As my wonderfully insane friend **FantomoDrako** stated, she'll be taking all Ranma ½ sections, whereas I will be handling anything that's s-CRY-ed related.

All constructive criticism welcome.

I eat flames and flamers... And fuzzy pickles.


	2. Seen and Unseen

**5/9/09 Note:** Later in this chapter, a small fight occurs and it results in Ranma being forced to repair a damaged building after being blown into it. This is due to the fact that he was the only one seen for a while after the damage occurred and that this is set in the s-CRY-ed world, where unexplained phenomena are usually not investigated fully in case it's caused by an alter user. This is by no means giving Ryoga a free ride or being overly nice to Ryoga.

* * *

A single scream could be heard soon after the light dissipated; once eyes could stand to be open they saw a fading stream of orange falling from where the tear opened. A huge tempest arose from the tear, as debris began to fly out of it.

Ryuho felt that Zetsuei had been absorbed into the tear and so used his power to dissolve several trees which had been flying around in the squall and use the mist they created to reform his Alter. Zetsuei wordlessly anchored itself to the ground with one ribbon, and wrapped the other ribbon around Ryuho, making sure that he was not truly affected by the howling winds.

Kazuma had plummeted into the ground and was buried in a small crater, somehow safe from the wind. He was dazed from the impact and as such was unable to even fathom that he was still in great danger. Various pieces of fencing fell around the battleground as the tear began to close; only to emanate one final flash of light before a large building materialised about thirty feet above the now slightly comatose Kazuma.

Ryuho was still shielding his eyes from the light as the building began to fall; only after the resounding crash that followed shortly after did he even begin to wonder if it was safe to open his eyes.

Little did anyone notice two people falling from a greater height, yelling their lungs out as they rapidly approached a face-plant session with the roof of the now ruined building. The extra tremor from this new impact was enough to awaken Kazuma from his mental stasis; only for him to be hit with enough pain to bend spring steel as though it were made of soft plastic.

"RYUHO!" his voice was that loud that it vibrated the ground and the building that now was crushing down upon him, causing Ryuho to instantly open his eyes as the realisation set in that Kazuma was now beyond mad and will now go all out to kill, if not critically injure him.

Meanwhile, within the building, Ranma and Ryoga both were unconscious; Ryoga was face down on a now fairly compacted pile of desks and chairs. Ranma, on the other hand, was completely erect, his arms bent out in his typical 'spider-man' position, his face completely buried into the surface of the teacher's desk; which now looked like a gaping maw awaiting gravity to grant it food.

The minor vibration that accompanied a muted scream seemed to rouse the two teens from their death-like states. Ryoga climbed to his feet first, holding his head as he continuously fought to dispel the fog that enclosed his thoughts. "Where are we?" he asked, before looking around and noticing that Ranma was only just beginning to move.

"What happened?" Ranma mumbled as he also held his head, the touch seeming to lessen the sharp headache that now haunted every thought. As he looked around and saw Ryoga, he sighed as the thought that they were in battle somehow won out against the pain. "Well, what're you waiting for, we gonna do this or not?" Ranma beckoned, settling into a fighter's stance.

"Sure, whenever you're ready," Ryoga replied, mirroring Ranma's stance, though something niggled at the back of his mind, a sense that something was very wrong. That something in the vicinity posed more danger than anything he had ever faced.

Ranma's eyes darted around in a quick attempt to regain a sense of his surroundings; it was only at this point that he noticed that the classroom was in complete ruin. Panic, tinged with a healthy dose of annoyance, gripped him; screeching loudly he gripped his hair tightly with both hands and threw his head back before crying out, "Aw man! The principal's going to blame this on me too!"

Ryoga seemed to be cheered by his adversary's despair, "Well yeah, it's your fault. Everything that happens around here is your fault, Ranma," he stated proudly, smiling just enough to bare his rather large canines.

Outside the building, Ryuho and Zetsuei both looked at it before Ryuho decided on his course of action. Thrusting a hand forward he yelled "Zetsuei!" mentally willing his Alter to pepper the building with its ribbons, which it did without delay.

As Ranma was about to attack Ryoga for his 'insolence', the cry "Zetsuei!" echoed through the room and before either teen could figure out what was going on, both soon found themselves conforming to various positions.

Ryoga stood there, posed like many statues he'd seen on fountains; one leg held high, his head held back and his arms were splayed back like they were wings, each appendage precariously near strange bluish-purple ribbons that had suddenly appeared there.

Ranma had suffered a similar fate, avoiding the ribbons left him posed like a ballerina in full twirl, though his face showed his disgust at once again being in such a pose involuntarily. Neither boy had to suffer these poses long because as quickly as they appeared, the ribbons disappeared, shattering a window as they did.

The awkward silence that followed was soon broken by the sound of cracking; which came from all the small perforations that were left in the walls and roofing. The boys wasted no time in leaping out of the window and fleeing the area as the building began to crumble into rubble.

A roar soon echoed from underneath the ruins and a large bang soon followed. Looking back, Ranma and Ryoga were mesmerised at the sight; the ruins of the classroom were completely gone and in their place a huge crater had formed. In the centre of this crater stood a man who seemed to be mutating right then and there.

Their bodies went into auto-pilot as they continued to watch. The man they observed was changing shape slightly, his arms seemed to become thinner, but much more powerful looking; his legs underwent a similar change. His head was what seemed to undergo the most changing, sprouting a long, red tendril from the back of it that seemed to all be covered in golden armour.

"First it's possessed ribbons, now this?!" Ranma yelled, focusing his sight on Ryoga as they both ran.

"You're telling me, I'm not sure how but this is your fault!" Ryoga retorted, also resetting his gaze.

As the boys realised they needed to watch where they were going, they turned their heads back just in time to see the trees that were in their way before colliding with them and once again returning to a state of unconsciousness.

Several hours passed before Ryoga slowly roused from being knocked out; his body was stiff from being frozen in the same position for such a long time. Holding his head softly, he searched his memory for what had happened; only to remember all too well what transpired immediately before he returned to being unconscious.

A crow cawed as the already orange sky began to change to a near black, interlaced with mauve and deep purple, all of which were peppered with white pin-pricks. Ryoga looked over to where Ranma was still unconscious, before looking around at the unfamiliar environment then sighing and taking off his backpack and unpacking his camping gear.

As darkness fell completely, Ranma awoke, before instantly groaning at the stiffness and pain that riddled his body.

"Nice to see that you've finally gotten up, Ranma," Ryoga said, sitting near his camp stove.

"Aw man, what happened?" Ranma mumbled as he slowly shuffled over to the small camp and sat on the opposite side of Ryoga and stared at the kettle that sat atop the stove.

"You were out for ages," Ryoga commented, lifting the kettle off the stove and pouring its contents into a bowl of instant ramen which sat nearby. The sight of this instantly set Ranma's stomach off, making it growl loudly.

The sound that followed it was not something that either of the two were expecting; a menagerie of growls, howling, barking and roaring came out in reply to Ranma's stomach, making both of them extremely nervous as the thoughts of what could be making those noises danced through their heads.

"Ranma?" Ryoga asked, fear evident in his voice.

"Yes?" Ranma replied, his voice doing little to hide his own fear.

"Here… If your stomach growls again we might be in trouble," Ryoga replied, handing Ranma an unopened bowl of instant ramen to which Ranma opened and poured what hot water remained in the kettle into it.

"I think it might be a good idea to call a truce until we figure out just what the hell is going on," Ranma said thoughtfully, still nervous and constantly watching for anything that may leap at them from the darkness.

"I agree," Ryoga replied, knowing that while he would rather bury his 'companion' and be done with it, now was not the time to be dragging up fights and such.

Before long, the two had eaten and were looking around the immediate area, being careful not to step out of the safety that the small camp stove's light seemed to provide. Not long after, the two had re-arrived at the trees they collided with earlier.

"Think one of these could do as firewood?" Ranma mused, pondering how best to fell the tree without attracting the attention of whatever monsters lurked in the shadows.

"Sure, stand back!" Ryoga said, smashing his fist into the tree; causing it to crumble into chunks that were small enough to be carried back as firewood. Ranma sighed as he knew that he would be the one carting it all back.

"Give me a hand will you?" Ryoga asked, gathering a heap into his arms and starting to walk back.

"Sure," Ranma replied, sighing with relief at the fact that it's not just him doing the carrying.

Not long after this, a nice sized campfire was alight and going strong. Ryoga stretched before climbing into his tent.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Ranma complained at this 'obvious' insult.

"What do you mean?" Ryoga replied sharply.

"You're going to just leave me out here in the open?" Ranma whined, hoping to strike a sympathetic nerve.

"I gave you dinner, provided firewood, and you woke up way later than I did, so you can stand watch," Ryoga replied, smiling in the fact that he had not one reason to take pity on his otherwise unwelcome companion.

"What?! Oh fine…" Ranma growled, before throwing another piece of wood onto the fire and watched as Ryoga zipped up the entrance to the tent.

Dawn broke with muted hues of pink and very light blue, these colours became red and orange against the clouds that dotted the sky as Ranma awoke for what seemed to be the millionth time as he stoked the fire once again.

He stood up, noticing the slight chill that clung to the air as he stretched. Looking around, he found nothing that resembled food and whined, knowing that perhaps the only food for ages was safely sealed within Ryoga's backpack. Not long after the sun had arisen over the canopy of the woodland, Ryoga emerged from the tent, looking well rested.

Ranma appeared before him, the full toll of the night making him look like death warmed up. Ryoga initially flinched when this happened before sighing.

"Good morning to you, too," Ryoga said, closing his eyes and turning his head away.

"Food…" was all that Ranma could enunciate at the time, staring holes into Ryoga as he did so.

"Sorry, but all I had was those two bowls of ramen we ate last night," Ryoga stated, looking off into the distance.

"WHAT?!" Ranma nearly screamed. "You mean to tell me that you only had those bowls of ramen?! When were you going to re-supply?!" Ranma pleaded, grabbing Ryoga's shirt and staring hard at him.

"I would have done so after helping Kasumi with the groceries, but you had to go and upset poor Akane!" Ryoga retorted, fire filling his eyes as he remembered the circumstances that lead to this predicament.

"Well, I guess we'd better get moving if we're going to find our way to some sort of settlement before we starve," Ranma sulked, knowing that retorting will only end up causing a new fight which he was too hungry to be able to sustain himself for. Ryoga was surprised that Ranma had backed down as he did, he was sure that Ranma would have made a fuss about it all.

Moving over to where the campfire was, Ranma began to scuff dirt onto the flame in order to put it out while Ryoga moved to and began to pull down his tent and pack it away. Not long after, the campsite was almost the way it was the night before, save a small pile of wood and the remains of the campfire.

Looking around and seeing that there was nothing that resembled danger in the area, save the odd noise that reverberated from deeper within the forest, the pair moved off, using the edge of the forest as a guide. Ranma, being severely weakened by his hunger, held onto Ryoga's backpack for support; the lightweight fighter added no noticeable burden on Ryoga as his considerable strength could withstand much more.

"How long have we been walking?" Ranma asked, the fatigue that racked his body evident in his voice.

"Ten minutes, maybe fifteen," Ryoga replied coldly, speeding up slightly to try and put some distance between the two; only to fail as Ranma had gripped on fairly tightly to his backpack and the resulting effort only made him trip and fall, which in turn lead to Ranma being dragged along as he hung there.

An hour passed before Ryoga happened upon a road, the extra weight of Ranma had finally worn him down, forcing him to rest on the edge of the road. He pried Ranma's hand off of his backpack and just sat there, breathing deeply to help recover the strength he had lost while carrying the added dead weight.

Ranma winced as his hand was forcibly removed from the point to which it was clamped, straining to move, he sat himself upright and looked along the road.

"Any idea where we are?" he asked sleepily.

"Who knows?" Ryoga responded, looking away from the pathetic creature.

"Aw, come on, man, I'm like starving here, cut me some slack," Ranma whined.

"All you think about is your stomach, isn't it?!" Ryoga yelled, staring hard at Ranma, only to be answered with a low but loud grumble of his own stomach.

"Oh? I'm sure it's also crossed your mind that you also need food, Mr. P," Ranma mocked, smiling at the irony of the situation. Something in the distance caught his eye and he completely focused his vision on it to make out a small farm. "Look! There's a farm, we might be able to get food there!" Ranma exclaimed, leaping up and standing like he was renewed.

"Where?" Ryoga asked excitedly, whipping his head around to see where this building was. At this point Ranma had already started running towards it and Ryoga struggled to get his backpack on before chasing him. "Come back here! Ranma!" he yelled after the more agile fighter.

Not a few minutes passed before Ryoga caught up with Ranma while he was still running towards the farm.

"Ranma, you're not the only one who's hungry!" he yelled ahead, hoping to slow Ranma down just enough so they can both get there together.

"So? When I get there I'll stuff myself with everything they got, better keep up or there'll be none left," Ranma taunted, putting on an extra burst of speed.

"You'll eat them out of house and home? You thief!!" Ryoga cried out, trying harder to catch up.

"Why do you care anyway?" Ranma asked, pushing himself to go faster.

"Because unlike you, I care about people other than myself," Ryoga bit back, throwing a couple of his bandannas at Ranma, but missing completely as Ranma sensed them and jumped clear out of the way.

"Well it's not like you can't find food wherever you go, your nose is your strong point, 'P-Chan'," Ranma teased, then laughed as he sprinted off faster than before.

"Why you! Why don't you realise just how good you got it; you've got Akane working tirelessly making you food that you're never man enough to eat!" Ryoga's words flew forth, each syllable drenched in venom.

"If you call that poisonous slop food then by all means eat it yourself, hell will freeze over before I eat any more of Akane's cooking!" Ranma yelled back, suppressing a shiver that flew up his spine as the memories of his fiancé's disastrous cooking attempts came back.

"You just don't care do you?" Ryoga said softly, coming to a stop. "You'll betray anyone who gets in the way of your selfish wants…" he added, feeling an overwhelming amount of heavy ki welling up within him.

He stood rigid, crossing his arms over his chest and began to channel the energy to his hands, which he began to move in front of him, slightly cupping them in the air as a ball of pure energy formed between them.

Ranma at this point saw the boundary fence of the farm and raced ahead, putting all thoughts of his 'companion' out of his mind as his focus turned to all the food that he was planning to gorge himself on.

"I win!" Ranma called out as he got closer to the fence.

"You just don't care…" Ryoga reiterated before pushing all of his heavy ki through his hands.

"Shishi Hôkô-Dan!" his cry echoed as the now wrecking-ball sized ball of energy launched itself at Ranma.

_That slowpoke's probably catching his breath…_ Ranma thought as he jumped the fence. However, as he was mid-jump, he felt the attack strike, catapulting him at great speeds forward; all that the black-haired warrior could remember seeing was a barn wall, and then everything went black for him.

"Oh no, I worked so hard to get this finished and now this happens!" A girl's voice rang out in exasperation. "Now I've got to do this all over again…" the voice continued, with a little annoyance lapping at the heels of each word.

Ranma awoke slowly, feeling his body's position he slowly rebuilt his memory on what happened before he fell out of the indentation that now adorned the barn wall. As he laid there on the ground, he started up at the passing clouds; a look of stern thought chiselled into his face.

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted as a girl's face appeared in front of his gaze. "Um, excuse me?" she began, flinching a little when Ranma jumped from being startled.

"Can I uh… help you?" Ranma started, feeling very nervous as it dawned upon him that while he was on the farm, he was otherwise unidentified to anyone there.

"Who are you?" she asked, her eyes full of curiosity.

"R-Ranma, Ranma Saotome!" Ranma stated, starting to regain his usual confidence.

"What in the world is going on here?!" Another voice rang out. An older woman came from the house in a great huff, behind here were several angry men, each holding hoes and other farming equipment, their yellow helmets shining in the sun.

Ranma leapt up as the mob approached, his mind was frozen with what to do; should he stay or should he flee? As his mind battled these questions the mob arrived.

"What's going on here?" The question came again.

"What's the bet he's an Alter…" one of the men grumbled.

"He looks too puny to be an Alter," another commented.

"Um, I'm not sure what happened, but he was blasted here," the girl piped up finally as a general rumble had started within the group.

"That's right!" Ranma stated. "I'm Ranma, Ranma Saotome" he introduced himself to the group, but was replied with hard stares and several sneers.

"Well, _Mister_ Saotome, am I right to assume you'll repair the damage you've done?" The woman asked, leering over him while pointing to the perfect impression of him in the nearby wall.

"Well, Ranma, it looks like you can't help but get yourself into trouble," Ryoga's voice came from nowhere, soon after he appeared from behind the group, his fangs slightly visible beneath his smirk.

"You know this whelp?" one of the men asked Ryoga.

"Unfortunately. You see, he's always causing everyone attached to him trouble," Ryoga went on to explain as he sat down on a barrel that was nearby.

"Hey!" Ranma shouted as he whirled around to stare at Ryoga. Before he could fully adjust his stance, he found himself being spun back around. When his vision cleared, he found that it was the woman of the group, her grip was strong but her stare was even stronger as she spoke.

"Well, considering that you're the one who damaged the wall, you can repair it, got it?!" After which there was a general grunt of consensus from the group as they all leered over the young fighter. As the group moved away, they left the equipment needed to repair the barn and also a bright yellow helmet; this was about the only thing that brought a smile to his face as he placed it on.

"Um, Mr. Saotome?" The girl asked politely.

"Ranma, mister makes me feel like pops," Ranma responded with a smirk.

"Can you help me?" she asked again, pointing to a ruined haystack. "When you crashed here, you went right through that, ruining all my hard work," she insisted, making Ranma feel a bit sheepish.

"Sure," he replied and immediately got to work, using his speed to gather most of the scattered hay. When it came down to the final bunches, he sighed as he looked over to the hole that still existed in the barn wall.

"Man, this is going to take me forever to fix," Ranma whined as he began to knock loose the damaged boards and see how much all those times fixing the numerous spots of damage at the Tendos has taught him.

Ryoga sat there and watched, slightly amazed that Ranma held such diverse skills aside from fighting. Each time Ranma affixed a new board where a broken one was Ryoga couldn't help but chuckle softly to himself. _It's about time he was really made to clean up his mess…_ he thought.

A few hours passed and finally the hole was no longer in existence. This only left a tell-tale patch of new timber against the well-weathered wall of the barn. The girl who was working near them had gone home and the sun was beginning to set, turning the sky a dull orange. The woman from before came up to check on the boys and the work they were assigned.

Upon seeing that the work was completed she smiled wide, a smile that befitted her girth.

"Well done boys, you've both earned dinner for that," she said warmly as she turned and looked back to them. "Follow me, dinner is almost ready," she added as she walked towards the homestead which wasn't too far away.

As the boys made their way to the house, the scent of food caught their noses, instinctively making their mouths water and their steps quicken as they nearly ran into the house. Several of the men sat around the table, which seemed to be well packed with varying types of food.

Ranma and Ryoga both took their seats at the table and controlled themselves long enough for everything to be brought out, and all who were there to be seated.

"Here's to a hard day's work!" one of the men said loudly, lifting his glass and everyone around did the same and took a drink. The two boys drank quickly, both having become rather thirsty during the day's work.

Little was discussed as the group ate. Ranma found himself having to control his inner-most urges to just gorge himself on what food there was on the table, reconciling himself with the thought that he's caused enough trouble for these strangers already.

After the meal was finished, most of the workers left for the night, one of whom retired to the bedroom within the house after hugging his wife. Ryoga felt like a moocher as he helped carry in the last of the plates from dinner. After placing them into the sink he turned and addressed the woman.

"I have to apologise, I didn't really earn that meal today," he started. "I can pay for the meal…" he hesitantly offered, only to be met with a smile from the woman.

"It's okay, really. Not too many times do we get visitors here who aren't here to hurt us," she said, turning and beginning to wash the remainder of the dishes.

"Are you sure?" Ryoga asked.

"I'm sure. If you feel that strongly on the matter, you can help out tomorrow; always more work to do around here," she said warmly.

"Very well, I will work hard and pay you back," Ryoga said cheerfully. His head dropped as it also dawned upon him that he had no place to stay in this strange new land.

"Um… Can I ask a favour then?" Ryoga asked cautiously.

"Sure, what is it?" The woman replied, not looking up from her chore.

"Can I stay here? Well…" Ryoga began to ask then remembered Ranma had never really been seasoned to camping on his own. "That is, can my 'friend' and I stay, we'll work off our debt," Ryoga asked again.

"Oh? Okay, we don't have much room, but we do have a small cottage nearby which you can rebuild as you go. Until then there's the spare room, just hope one of you doesn't mind the floor," the woman responded, looking up from her chore with a half-smile on her face.

Ryoga bowed graciously and walked back out to the dining room where Ranma had slumped over on the table, snoring loudly and drooling on the raw wood. Ryoga turned his face away sharply in disgust at the sight of his pathetic travelling companion.

Walking over to him, Ryoga gave him another look before whacking him on his head quickly.

"Ow! What'd you do that for?!" Ranma yelled, leaping up and assuming a fighting stance.

"Time to go to bed," Ryoga snapped, pointing into the spare room; "Hurry up or you'll be on the floor," he teased as he walked into the room, before he could even move towards the bed he felt himself being pulled away.

"You had the tent AND the sleeping bag last night, so you can have the bare floor," Ranma said, instantly jumping into the bed then discarding his shirt and pants after being fully covered. Ryoga just shrugged his shoulders and set out his sleeping bag on the floor and climbed into it, following Ranma's lead of discarding his clothes after being in the bed.

That night was yet another sleepless one for Ranma, as each time Ryoga shifted in his sleep, he moved one of several loose floorboards, which all ended under the bed, so once every hour or so Ranma found himself being whacked or poked by these boards.

Ryoga was lost in his dreams and was blissfully unaware of the torture he was exhibiting upon Ranma. Only a murmur of "Akane…" escaped his lips every now and again.

It was mid-morning when Ryoga awoke; he heard various hammers going nearby. He jumped when he realised that he'd over-slept. He raced out and found the woman of the house smiling wide with food at the table.

"Well, good morning, I take it you slept well. By the looks of you, you needed about a week's worth of sleep before you could pry yourself from that dream," she said, laughing after she did.

"What do you mean?" Ryoga asked sheepishly, taking a seat at the table, quickly but politely eating what food was left for him.

"I checked on you earlier and all I could hear was 'Oh Akane, how I love you so!' and 'Why are you engaged to someone who doesn't care about you?'. You really are a sweet guy; whoever this Akane girl is, she must be proud to know you," The woman elaborated, then froze when she saw Ryoga's expression.

"I… I said _that_ in my sleep?!" Ryoga asked, an expression of pure fear plastered on his face.

"Why, yes dear, you did," she responded. "But don't worry, you were the only one in the room at the time, the bed was empty and your friend was already out sizing up the cottage; apparently he wants to fix it," she added with a laugh.

"Oh, I never told him," Ryoga added quietly, standing up and packing his plates up for the woman to deal with. "Thank you for the meal, I'll get out there and see what needs doing," he said, bowing politely and making his way out to the cottage behind the house. As he approached, he saw Ranma was already inspecting the place.

When Ranma saw Ryoga he instantly scowled and turned away.

"So, you're finally up," he growled.

"Yeah, I am, what's eating you?" Ryoga retorted, coming closer and seeing that the cottage was in good shape, and was in need of only minor repairs.

"You should have taken the bed," Ranma muttered softly as he examined the roof, which was in the greatest need of repair.

"What's the matter? Getting everything your way not enough now?" Ryoga bit back. Ranma saw red to this and pivoted quickly on his heels, glaring at the Lost Boy as though willing him to spontaneously combust. His aura reacted to his emotions and flared to life, eerily resembling a bright red conflagration whose sole target was the unfortunate bandanna-clad boy in front of it. As Ryoga backed up from the sudden outburst, he tripped and fell backwards, whacking his head on a rock and knocking himself out.

Ranma saw this and instantly growled.

"You owe me big time…" he muttered as he hauled Ryoga onto his shoulders and carried him back into the house.

As he entered the house, the woman who was cleaning screamed as she saw the young boy's head drip blood very slowly onto the floor. She raced over to the two and instantly took Ryoga and put him onto the couch, then ran outside and yelled out, "Kanami! Kanami?! Can you come quickly?"

As the woman re-entered the house, she was followed by the young girl that Ranma met the day before. Her long brown hair seemed slightly messed up from all the work she had been doing. She instantly saw the boy on the couch and wordlessly went to work bandaging his head.

"He should be fine now, it's nothing too serious," she said looking at the woman and Ranma after standing up.

"Thank goodness, how did this happen?" The woman asked, staring hard at Ranma.

"He tripped and hit his head," Ranma replied, slightly intimidated by her leering.

"Oh, he wasn't wearing a hard hat, was he?" she asked again.

"No, he was only looking at the place," Ranma replied again.

The woman sighed softly and went back to her house chores, the young girl sat back down next to Ryoga, keeping an eye on him. Ranma recognised the girl from before and he couldn't resist talking to her.

"So, you're Kanami?" Ranma asked politely.

"Mmhmm, Kanami Yuta," Kanami replied, looking up and smiling at Ranma.

"You work here often?" Ranma asked again, sitting down on the floor.

"Yup, have been for a while now, ever since Kazu-kun went away again," Kanami responded.

"Kazu-kun?" Ranma asked, curious about this new person she mentioned.

"He's her no-good husband," the woman of the house said as she came out. "That cottage isn't going to repair itself you know, mister," she added, pointing out towards it. "We've got the supplies for it, but if you want to stay here tonight you'd better get back to work," she commanded.

Ranma sighed and went back outside, donning his helmet and taking a handful of shingles as well as enough nails. He climbed onto the roof and began to work at removing the broken and cracked shingles; replacing them with new ones as he went.

He only stopped when he needed more shingles, or when he decided that his thumb would make a nice replacement for a nail. After reclaiming his hammer and having his thumb bandaged, he returned to working for the rest of the afternoon.

Dinner came and went without incident, a few of the men actually complimenting Ranma's handiwork with the shingles on the small cottage. The woman of the house took time to have everyone reminded as to why they wear the helmets, using the still unconscious Ryoga as her prime example.

Ranma was obligated to help clear the plates, after which he went straight to bed, exhausted from the day's work.

Ryoga's night was a restless one, he tossed and turned in his sleep, murmuring incoherently, waving his fist at invisible dangers that plagued him.

In Ryoga's nightmare, the air was thick with the scent of food and the sound of hungry children filled the air. Ryoga seemed to be a spirit as he looked upon the scene; two little girls, one with jet black hair with a slight deep blue tinge, the other with deep crimson hair, sat near a little boy, his short hair was a very deep purple.

"Mummy? When will dinner be ready?" one of the little kids asked as an older Akane walked in, her mid-length deep blue hair seeming to shine under the light as she sat down.

"As soon as Aunty Ukyo is finished preparing it," Akane said, looking over to the open door of the room. "Ranma! Dinner's almost ready!" she called out lovingly, standing when he entered the room.

"Good, I'm starving," Ranma said, moving to Akane and hugging her tenderly.

"It's so good that Ukyo agreed to help out with running the Dojo," Akane said softly as they sat down.

"Yeah. She's been such a fabulous sister," Ranma commented back, before holding his head softly.

"More headaches?" Akane asked, gently touching her husband on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I keep feeling like I'm close to getting a memory back, but it's no good," Ranma replied. Soon after, Ukyo walked in holding a massive tray which Ranma helped her to lower.

"Thanks, Bro," Ukyo beamed cheerfully, her long brown hair shining from steam that the cooking had produced.

"Anytime, Sis," Ranma said, sitting down again.

"Any luck?" Ukyo asked, looking at him.

"No, ever since Master Happosai died, I haven't been able to remember a thing about my upbringing," Ranma said as he looked down.

"Well, at least he could have not taken your memory like that," Ukyo said boldly before smiling brightly. "There's still time though, Ran-chan, you'll get your memory back," she said brightly.

"I hope so, Ucchan," Ranma replied before looking at Akane. "I hate seeing you slave away as you do to continue the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts when I'm the one who's meant to do that," he added before gently nuzzling into her.

"Yay! It's pork!" the children cried in unison, prompting the adults to stop their conversation. As Ryoga couldn't help but look on in this nightmare, he noticed the pig in the middle of the table and instantly recognised that it was an older version of his cursed form.

At the moment he saw Ukyo, Ranma and Akane each eat a part of the glazed pig, he screamed. Sitting straight up on the couch, his hair was wet from sweat and his entire body felt weak, his heart was the heaviest he's ever felt it and tears streamed from his eyes like water from a faucet. Looking outside, he noticed that it was dawn though this did little to stop his pain; the proud warrior curled up into a ball and wept whispering, "Akane, how could you?" for what seemed to be an eternity.

As morning dawned upon the farm, the workers arrived early to go out and complete what they were working on. Before Ranma and Ryoga left the house one of the men pulled them aside.

"Looks like some recent trouble lodged some boulders up on the back crops; can you two start breaking it down and carting the rubble off the farm? It's right on the fence so you don't have far to cart it," he asked, pointing roughly in the direction of where the boulders were.

Ranma nodded and nudged Ryoga, who hid his eyes under the yellow helmet he wore. As they walked out to the back where the tools were, Ranma noticed that Ryoga exuded waves of sadness. He shrugged it off as he loaded a barrow with a pick and shovel before moving off.

As they walked, Ranma got annoyed at Ryoga's mood and resulting silence from him.

"Hey, what's the matter? Little piggy wake up with a headache?" Ranma teased, knowing that it would get a rise out of him.

"How could you?" was all Ryoga replied.

"How could I? How could I what?" Ranma asked, now thoroughly confused by the Lost Boy's rambling.

"How could you eat me? How could you forget that pig was me?!" Ryoga cried out, staring intensely with fire in his eyes while his hands were balled into tight fists.

"Um… Hello? We never had pork last night, it was all rice and pickles," Ranma said casually, thinking that Ryoga's bump on the head had messed something up. Ryoga, however, saw red and lashed out, throwing a punch at Ranma who swiftly dodged it.

"Dodge this!" Ryoga challenged, pulling a few of his headbands free and throwing them at the agile fighter, who did dodge them all, but not without significant effort.

"What the hell?!" Ranma called out before realising that Ryoga was serious. Remembering that Ryoga doesn't stop until either knocked out or successful, Ranma stopped and forced his ki stop heating up, chilling it instantly with intense focus.

"Ranma! I'm going to kill you!" Ryoga called out, his aura burning bright as he charged headlong into the warrior. Blinded by the red haze of anger that veiled his vision and thoughts, he was completely unaware that Ranma was leading him in an ever-tightening spiral. As he entered within range, Ranma struck out suddenly, his voice echoing loudly.

"Hiryū Shōten Ha!"

At this point a massive tornado erupted, pulling Ryoga into the air and sending him high into the sky. Moments after, the squall dissipated, leaving Ryoga to plummet towards the ground. Ranma looked into the resulting crater after Ryoga crashed into the ground and saw that Ryoga was far from done, he was standing up, his clothes tattered from the impact, his eyes glowing red with the pure rage that had engulfed him at that point.

"RANMA!" Ryoga yelled out, running towards the other fighter at a quick pace, undoing his belt and flicking it out to make an impromptu sword. Ranma backed up as far as he could until his back hit the trunk of a tree; he jumped out of the way just in time to avoid a slash from Ryoga that felled the tree in one clean stroke.

Ranma ran for his life, knowing that only his speed could save him at this point. Unknown to the two fighters, the workers from the farm had witnessed the tornado and had driven out to see if they were alright. As the workers got close enough to see the commotion, they looked on, awed at the sheer ferocity of the fight.

"You're not getting away this time!" Ryoga called, charging after Ranma with a lethal focus. His fury was such that he barely noticed the boulders that he charged through, obliterating them as he did so. Ranma thought it'd be best to hide after seeing the devastation that Ryoga was wreaking on the area, so he got himself a fair bit ahead of Ryoga and hid behind the last boulder.

When Ryoga reached the boulder, he sensed Ranma was behind it. He smirked as he thought that he had finally won. Cocking his fist back he extended his index finger and focused his mind's eye, seeing the breaking point of the boulder he thrust his finger into the boulder as he cried out.

"Bakusai Tenketsu!"

With this the boulder exploded, sending Ranma flying with the resulting debris. Ryoga smiled as he saw that he had finally dealt damage to the exceptionally cocky fighter. His thoughts were disrupted as he heard yelling from a distance.

"Alter User!"

* * *

**Disclaimer:** My squirrel is a nut! Neither of us own the rights to Ranma ½ or s-CRY-ed. We write this simply because we want to, not for profit. Add to that the simple fact that both of us are dirt poor and suing becomes a pointless endeavour.

**FantomoDrako:** I wrote what in this chapter exactly? All of one paragraph and a few words? Wow, I feel like a slacker! About 99 per cent of this chapter must be credited to **Renegade**. Give the guy a round of applause! If you can pick out what little bits _I_ wrote, then I'll give you a plate of mutant muffins!

Please review and give us feedback! There's always room for improvement, after all. -puppy eyes-

**Renegade Bladesman:** Yes Fantomo, you are a slacker :P Seriously though, I wasn't expecting to write the ENTIRE chapter this time around, goes to show what happens when you get bored enough these days. -trying to resist puppy eyes- As she said earlier, reviews and feedback welcome.

I eat flames and flamers… with pickles and rice.


	3. Searching for Answers

The table in the living room was enjoying the company as Genma and the Tendos all sat around it. Ranma and Ryoga had not returned from their fight and it was now the third day since; the worry was really starting to set in. It was not unusual for Ryoga to disappear like this, but Ranma always came home, for the food if nothing else.

"Where could the boy have disappeared to?" Genma said. He had asked this question many times since the first night Ranma did not return and would doubtlessly continue to do so until some sort of clue was unearthed.

"It's no surprise that Ryoga hasn't returned, he could have easily wandered off somewhere," Nabiki piped up, shifting a little on the cushion she was sitting on.

"Oh, I hope they're both okay wherever they are," Kasumi said sadly, staring absently at the ceiling.

The Tendo patriarch took a sip of the green tea that Kasumi had served to everybody. "Ryoga had his backpack with him, so I'm confident the lad will be alright and, if Ranma is with him, he should be fine, too," he eventually said, trying to inspire a spark of hope within the dismal household.

Akane was silent, doing all she could to hold back tears; guilt had settled upon her shoulders and clung to her like a foul odour. She fought back a sob as she once again recalled the last words she had spoken to her pigtailed fiancé; _"__You rotten jerk; I never want to see you again!__"_

The youngest of the Tendo family could not help feeling as though her harsh words, spoken in the midst of sadness and anger, were the reason behind Ranma's vanishing act. Had he taken her words to heart and simply walked off with Ryoga, not even hanging around long enough to pack his things? Would she ever see him again and have the chance to apologise? These questions, and a few others like them, had plagued her endlessly for two days. Nobody had blamed her, but the guilt still weighed her down like iron shackles.

Almost the entire Nerima ward had been eerily quiet. No fights had broken out, unless you counted Akane sending Kuno flying, and the residents, instead of enjoying the peace of the respite, seemed to be waiting for something. An air of anxiousness hung around most people and a lot of conversations in the streets seemed whispered and rushed, as though everyone was awaiting word of evacuation because a natural disaster was headed their way.

It was strange the influence one single person's absence had.

What was it about Ranma Saotome that seemed to draw others to him; for good or bad reasons? Ryoga and Mousse were drawn to attack him again and again; Kuno alternated between attacking his male half and hugging his female half - Kodachi doing the same except in reverse, while Shampoo and Ukyo were drawn to him because of affection.

Akane, though she would never admit it to anyone, was drawn to the enigmatic pigtailed youth also, though in a much more subtle way compared to the others. He was kind in his own awkward way. He upset her more often than not, however, usually by sticking his foot in his mouth and chewing on it for good measure. Akane had ample time to dwell on such things as the school had been closed for an undetermined amount of time due to rather extensive damage. Nobody had explained what the damages were and Akane had too much on her mind to walk to the school and see for herself.

When news of the school was first heard, Nabiki had joked that Ranma and Ryoga were the cause. Nabiki's curiosity had gotten the better of her at that point and she had gone to asses the amount of destruction. When Nabiki had returned to the house sometime later, she had informed everyone that sections of fencing, a few trees and an entire classroom had seemingly been broken or uprooted and vanished. Akane did not know this because she zoned out, paying attention only to her feelings. Smart girl that she was, Nabiki knew that even Ranma and Ryoga could not cause that kind of damage; if they had smashed through anything, there would have been a pile of rubble to indicate as such.

Kasumi had gone on much the same as before; doing the household chores and looking after everyone. The demure girl had faith that both of the boys were fine; they were tough, adaptable and seemed to always pull together and triumph if faced with something that was beyond them. Still, as much as Kasumi had tried her hardest to keep the house's atmosphere light, it had gradually darkened over a couple of days.

"Hello?" a voice suddenly called out.

Kasumi instantly got to her feet and said, "It appears we have a visitor," before making her way to the front door. Sliding the door open, Kasumi found Ukyo Kuonji standing on the doorstep.

"Hey, Kasumi," the okonomiyaki chef greeted the older girl, "is Ranma here?"

"Ranma? No, I'm afraid not," Kasumi answered, her ever-cheerful smile fading a touch. At Ukyo's inquiring look, Kasumi elaborated by adding, "No one knows where he is. Both he and Ryoga disappeared a couple of days ago. Mr. Saotome and my father went searching all over the town, but found nothing. I'm sorry you had to come all this way only to be disappointed."

Ukyo simply stood there with her mouth open, a look of shock and disbelief plastered on her face. "D-disappeared…? You mean both of them are missing?" she asked in a slightly detached tone of voice.

"Yes."

"Nothing is ever easy or straightforward when my future Son-in-law is involved," an old, dry voice said from behind the chef.

Startled, Ukyo turned around to find the Amazon Elder Cologne perched on her staff atop the wall next to the Tendo's front gate. The old woman hopped down and bounded over to the two young women, her staff making a small wooden thunk on every hop as it hit the concrete.

"Hello," Kasumi said, inclining her head politely.

"Hello, child. So, both Son-in-law and Ryoga have vanished? Nothing much surprises me when it concerns those two. Even the Hibiki boy seems to attract his fair share of strange happenings," Cologne commented, staring thoughtfully at nothing.

Ukyo kept flicking her gaze towards the tiny, wrinkled woman, then away. She did this a few times before she was able to swallow her pride and ask, "Do you know anything about what's happened to them?"

The Joketsuzoku matriarch narrowed her eyes. "I wish I did, young Kuonji. Now is not the time for rivalries between you, Shampoo and Akane; you must put your fighting aside and work together if we are to have any chance of locating those two idiots. Do you understand?" she asked sternly, peering at the okonomiyaki chef until Ukyo squirmed under her penetrating gaze.

"Yeah, I hear ya," Ukyo replied. "As long as your hussy of a great-granddaughter doesn't make any cracks about my Ranchan, then I'll work with her."

Cologne nodded. "I shall inform Shampoo to hold her tongue or I will punish her myself. This is too important to risk everything falling apart because someone cannot get along. Kasumi, is it okay if we gather here to discuss plans?"

The eldest Tendo daughter smiled. "Of course, I'll let everyone know. Are Shampoo and Mousse coming over as well?"

"Yes, the more people we have helping the better," Cologne replied. "I'll go close up the Cat Café and fetch them." Matching actions to words, the small, wizened woman hopped away, over the fence and out of sight.

Kasumi beckoned Ukyo to follow her and the elder girl led her through the house, leaving Ukyo at the living room table with everyone else and going into the kitchen to make more tea. Kasumi always strove to be a gracious host and having guests over meant that it would be extremely rude on her part to not offer them anything when they arrived. Still, Kasumi wished that it was not always her pandering to everyone; was it too much to ask if someone else took up a bit of the slack every now and then?

"Well, hello, Ukyo," Soun said. "Are you here looking for Ranma?"

Ukyo nodded and went on to explain what Cologne intended. The teenage chef directed Cologne's instructions about no fighting directly at Akane, but the blue-haired girl did not respond. Curious, Ukyo poked Akane in the upper arm with a finger.

"I heard you," Akane snapped half-heartedly.

Ukyo swiftly pulled back, her eyes wide. _What's gotten into her? I'm upset that Ranma-honey's missing too, but I'm not snapping at others like Kodachi's crazy pet crocodile Mr. Green Turtle!_

Everyone at the table was quiet, absorbed in their own thoughts. The tense silence was broken when Cologne reappeared with Shampoo and a white duck in tow. The female Amazons quickly seated themselves - Shampoo throwing a haughty glare at Akane and Ukyo while doing so - but Mousse, being a duck, could not properly sit around the table. He let loose an indignant quack.

"Be quiet, stupid Mousse!" Shampoo hissed at the waterfowl.

Mousse ducked his head and gave a soft, apologetic quack to his beloved.

Shampoo huffed and turned her attention back to the conversation that had just started.

"We've already searched all of Furinkan!" Genma exclaimed, not happy with Cologne's proclamation that they should split up and comb the entire area.

Cologne sighed. "Yes, I know, but with all of us searching, we may find something that the two of you overlooked," she patiently explained. Cologne did not like dealing with Genma on a good day, but with the way he was now, she knew her patience was going to be sorely tested.

It had taken a good hour or so for everyone to agree on a plan. Once they had, they immediately put it into motion. Splitting up at the Tendo's front gate, each person went their own way, determined to fully cover the area Cologne had assigned to each of them.

Ukyo wended her way towards the main restaurant district; her practised eye would easily be able to spot anything out of the ordinary, while Nabiki made her way towards the marketplace. Her 'business' skills would be invaluable when gathering information and where better than the place where most of the gossipers congregated?

Soun and Genma had gone off to cover some residential areas. Kasumi had elected to stay at home and wait for any news. She was also told to inform Happosai of the recent developments if he showed up. The diminutive pervert had not been seen in a few days and, as no reports of stolen underwear had been heard, everyone assumed that he had left Nerima and gone 'training' abroad for a while.

Cologne herself had decided to inform Doctor Tofu and request that he keep his ears and eyes open for anything that may be of help.

Akane had announced that she wished to investigate the school. As no one had any objections, although Nabiki had told her that it was pointless, the short-tempered girl had insisted. Nobody had been in the mood to argue with her except Shampoo, though a stern glare from her great-grandmother had dissuaded her from saying anything.

Shampoo was using her bicycle to cover more ground quicker. It was her job to search everywhere that the others weren't looking. Unfortunately for her, Mousse had tagged along and was flying several feet above her and a couple of feet ahead.

Mousse could not remember being this happy before, save for when Shampoo had asked him to accompany her into The Cursed Tunnel of Lost Love, and when Ranma and Akane had both swallowed love mushrooms and were about to get married. _Now, though…_ Mousse thought gleefully, _Ranma has mysteriously vanished! With him out of the picture, there's no way he'll be able to force my beloved Shampoo to marry him! Then, with no one left, I shall step forward to comfort her and she will be so grateful that she'll insist on becoming man and wife that very instant!_

The half-blind duck's imagination took over and Mousse became completely focused on his wonderful daydream.

"Oh, Mousse," Shampoo sobbed, "you always been there for Shampoo! Shampoo sorry she ignore you and hope you can find in heart to forgive?"

"My dear, sweet Shampoo…" Mousse said breathily, tenderly wrapping his arms around her trembling form. "There is nothing I would not do for you, forgiving you is a simple matter; I know you were blinded by Saotome's womanising ways."

"Oh, Mousse!" Shampoo said again, happily this time. The beautiful young Amazon returned the embrace, leaning her head against his chest a heaving a contented sigh. "You Shampoo's too too handsome prince. Will you take Shampoo as bride?"

"Of course, that's all I ever wanted…" he replied, his voice steadily growing softer as he lost himself in Shampoo's gaze.

"Shampoo so happy!" the Amazon chirped, leaning towards his face with her eyes closed, her lips silently begging him to take them.

Mousse leaned forward, his own eyes closing to preserve the image in his mind. He knew, without looking, that he was barely an inch away from his target.

BAM!

Shampoo's bike tyres left skid marks as she swiftly applied the brakes. Something had fallen out of the sky and had been heading straight for her, so she had stopped. Looking around, Shampoo couldn't see anything lying around. Shrugging, she faced forward and was about to start pedalling again when she noticed a white bundle of feathers lying in her bike's green handlebar basket. Glancing up, she could make out a duck-sized dent in a telephone pole, cracks spider-webbing away from the point of impact.

"Silly Mousse. Even if you wear glasses, still need to watch where you going," she admonished the unconscious duck. Shaking her head at the blind boy's antics, she resumed her task with renewed vigour.

* * *

"I'll have another drink," Ryuho's refined voice came soft but sternly at the waiter.

"Yes, Sir!" the waiter snapped, walking away stiffly as though someone had nailed rods to all appendages.

"Excuse me…?" a male voice enquired. Ryuho turned and saw an average built man in a tuxedo standing near. "I couldn't help notice that you're Ryuho, lord of the Ryu dynasty…" the man continued.

"Your point?" Ryuho asked cordially, the soft music airing in the restaurant aiding to remind him of the refined behaviour required of the establishment.

"Well, is it true that you're one of the two Alter Users that challenged the mainland?" the man asked again, an air of fear surrounding him and quickly filling the other guests of the establishment. Ryuho looked down and saw that a voice recorder had been activated.

"So, you're a reporter from the mainland?" Ryuho asked, his eyes focusing on the man who immediately froze with fear.

"Yes, s-sir!" the reporter stammered, his voice showing no restraint of the fear that gripped his being. He dropped the recorder and ran screaming for the exit, arousing the attention of everyone else in the restaurant. Some of the guests stood up and left quickly after settling their bills and Ryuho simply returned to watching the potted plants that adorned the newly opened restaurant.

_For the amount of money that they asked for, they could have made several improvements to the way things are handled here,_ Ryuho thought as the waiter finally returned with the sparkling water that he had spent the afternoon drinking while he awaited his order. Before the waiter could hurry off Ryuho gestured for him to wait.

"Please ask the chef what is taking so long? I have seen several people come in, eat and leave since placing my order," he asked, trying hard to hide the disgust and annoyance that the obvious delay was causing.

"I w-will… R-r-right away!" the waiter stuttered as he scurried back into the kitchen like he was being hunted. Several moments passed before the head chef walked out and sat across the table from Ryuho, sweating profusely from what seemed to be overwork.

"Please forgive us, Master Ryuho, there have been nothing but problems all day. Stolen supplies, new reservations that were not to be put in this day, and now that reporter seems to have broken in just to accost you," the chef explained, wiping his brow and bowing respectfully.

"Very well, you are forgiven, but please don't let this become a habit," Ryuho said with a serious look on his face. "I've invested a small fortune into this place and I'd hate to believe that it was an error in my judgement to do so," he added, to which the chef sat upright, pale as a ghost.

"No sir, it will not happen…" the chef began, but stopped when a new person approached the table.

"Sir, I would ask that you do not threaten my staff like that; I'll have you know that the mighty Ryuho of the Ryu dynasty has funded this fine establishment…" the new person commented aloud.

"Mr. Manager, this _is_ Mr. Ryuho," the chef offered up softly, smiling nervously at the looks the group were attracting from the other patrons.

"Mr. Ryuho?!" the manager exclaimed, his face turning whiter than snow.

"Yes, I am Ryuho, and this establishment is a waste of both my time and money, which you announced just now were vital for this place to be established," Ryuho said calmly, looking the manager in the eye as he did so.

"A thousand apologies sir, I have never met you before now and so I didn't realise it was you," the manager said, bowing profusely and rubbing his hands together with a very nervous smile chiselled upon his face.

"That is not good enough," Ryuho said coldly, freezing the manager in place with those words. "You are a mockery, and thus have made a mockery of this establishment. You are to resign and never set foot here again," Ryuho commanded, standing up and staring straight into the manager's eyes.

The former manager stood straight up and regarded Ryuho's well built form. His eyes fell upon two scars that were on his cheeks, and instantly the thoughts came of what being would be powerful enough to leave such marks on one of the finest members that the unit of HOLY held before it was disbanded. He smiled very nervously again, using what little strength seemed to remain to stop himself quivering where he stood.

Ryuho also regarded the former manager of the establishment, seeing nothing more than a cowardly man who perhaps lived an entirely sheltered life that was at someone else's expense. His eyes fell on a wad of foreign cash that protruded from the man's pocket when he involuntarily flinched.

"So, you were paid to let the reporter in…" Ryuho stated, his eyes darting back up to the manager's face. His stare held deadly intent as the manager began to sweat and back away. "Cowards like you disgust me, now get out of my sight!" Ryuho commanded with a powerful force behind his words. The man fled the restaurant screaming in fear as he did so.

Ryuho moved over to the reception desk and helped himself to the telephone. Dialling a number he had on a piece of paper in his pocket he waited for a minute.

"Hello?" the voice came from the other end of the phone.

"It's Ryuho, I'm at the restaurant," Ryuho said.

"I see, how is it? Is it to your liking?" the voice enquired.

"No, not at all, your manager is a coward who took bribes to let unwelcome people into the premises," Ryuho responded.

"I hope you fired him on my behalf," the voice responded, disappointment hung off each word.

"I did, I'd like to give the manager's position to the chef here," the reply came.

"Jouji? I see that hiring him was perhaps the best decision for that place," the voice responded.

"Indeed," Ryuho replied before taking a breath. "I'll do that now then. Goodbye," he said before hanging up the phone.

Ryuho returned to the table he noticed that the chef was still there, exhausted from the stress that came from the preceding moments.

"Jouji, right?" Ryuho enquired.

"Yeah? Is there a problem, Master Ryuho?" Jouji replied.

"I've just spoken to the other owner, we've both agreed that you're the new manager," Ryuho replied, smiling as the elation of the news burned brightly on the middle-aged chef's face.

"Thank you, boss!" he cried out excitedly before bowing and running back into the kitchen. The waiter came out shortly after and handed a note to Ryuho; _Ryuho, thank you for promoting me, come back tonight at eight, I'm putting on a feast to celebrate, no charge at all._

Ryuho smiled at this, it had been some time since he saw such generosity within the city walls. He exited the building calmly, blissfully unaware of the stares he attracted from the remaining patrons of the restaurant. Hailing a taxi, he returned home to the Ryu compound.

As he entered his home, he was greeted by one of several servants that he kept in employ.

"Lord Ryuho, a Master Elian was here not too long ago, he said to give you this when you returned…" the servant said, handing over a letter. Ryuho knew immediately what it concerned and ripped it open hastily.

_Ryuho, I have scanned everywhere on the Lost Ground, it seems that there are two beings who exited the rift when you last fought Kazuma, they are hard to track because of their exposures. I get the feeling that they aren't of this world, or of the other side. I'll continue scanning when Urizane isn't yelling about the new crop of watermelons that's coming into fruit soon._

_Elian_.

Ryuho nodded to himself as he thought back to the fight a couple of days prior. _I knew I heard someone else there, this proves it!_ Ryuho thought to himself before retiring to the main room to muse the thoughts of what happened today over. An idea struck him and he called for a servant.

"Sir?" the servant enquired.

"I'd like to acquire a gift for the new manager of the restaurant, what would you recommend?" Ryuho asked.

"A bottle of vintage wine seems to always be a good idea, Master Ryuho," the servant replied.

"Very well then, see if our cellar has anything of suitable quality, otherwise acquire some by this evening," Ryuho instructed as he waved the servant away.

"I will return soon," the servant said, bowing and leaving.

Moments later the servant returned with a dusty bottle of wine. "Master Ryuho, here is the finest bottle your father kept, it's still intact and virtually still as fresh as the day it was bottled," the servant said, beaming over her effort.

"Thank you, you may go, please organise a taxi to come by tonight at half past seven," Ryuho commented as he observed the bottle and began to wipe it clean. "Could you also wrap this appropriately as well?" he asked kindly, handing the mostly clean bottle of wine over to the servant.

"Yes, sir!" the servant chirped, nearly skipping away as she went to fulfil the new requests.

_Kazuma, I wonder what you're doing now?_ Ryuho thought to himself as he looked into an empty fireplace.

* * *

On the other side of the Lost Ground, a small village had popped up since the second upheaval, people nattered away busily doing their daily chores to expand the township and make sure their food supply was maintained.

In one building which had been abandoned, Kazuma laid within; thinking back to the recent fight he had.

* * *

Kazuma stood there, staring up at Ryuho after having finished forming his final stage Alter. Ryuho looked back with a slight look of frenzied desperation upon his face, he yelled out, unleashing Zetsuei's second form.

Kazuma didn't even batter an eyelid as he slammed the tendril into the ground, sending him hurtling towards Ryuho.

"You'll pay for that! You'll PAY!" Kazuma screamed as he flew, his fist opening and absorbing latent Alter power from the air itself. Moments before he was due to strike his target, Zetsuei substituted itself as the target and took the full blow of the attack. Both Kazuma and Zetsuei flew past Ryuho into another pile of boulders nearby.

"Kazuma! You're out of control!" Ryuho yelled, as he felt his Alter being crushed under the force of Kazuma's attack. Exhaustion began to rack Ryuho's mind as he once again formed his Alter and transformed it. At this time the sun was beginning to sink low and it turned a bright orange.

Kazuma launched himself up and propelled himself forward using his aura, which matched the hue of the sun. As Ryuho looked up, the shine of the sun made him shield his eyes and hesitate as he cleared his mind of the pain that permeated his eyes at the time.

"RYUHO!" Kazuma yelled out as his fist came forward in the attack, not stopping to give its target time to react as Ryuho looked just in time to see his adversary's victory smile as he felt the strike connect, the force behind it felt like several nuclear weapon blasts compressed into four square inches.

Ryuho bounced along the ground for several metres before coming to a stop. As he fell out of consciousness, Zetsuei fizzled from view. Kazuma smirked once again as his body reverted to normal and also felt his consciousness ebb.

"Heh… I win again," were the final words to escape Kazuma's lips before he joined Ryuho in unconsciousness.

* * *

_I wonder where he got that building from,_ Kazuma thought as he lay on the makeshift bed in the house. _It's not like there were any abandoned buildings nearby, and it's not like him to use something like that against me…_Kazuma's thoughts continued as he looked out the window to see the sunset.

_I wonder how you're doing Kanami,_ Kazuma thought as he gazed on.

* * *

Ryuho checked himself in the mirror before exiting the compound and hopping into the taxi which had arrived ahead of time.

"Where to, sir?" the driver asked, Ryuho pointed out the new restaurant's address and the driver nodded.

"Ah, you still want to go there after what happened today?" the driver asked again.

"What do you mean?" Ryuho asked in return.

"Well, they say that one of the nastiest Alters around went there today," the cabbie started. "They say he threatened the staff there, even sent the manager packing in fear. Hell, sir, I'm not sure that someone of even your reputation could survive there," he added as he drove off.

"I take it you're new on the job?" Ryuho asked.

"Yes, sir! Started today to be honest," the driver responded.

"Very well," Ryuho stated before turning and looking out the window at the other cars on the road and the buildings that went past.

Not long after he started out, Ryuho arrived at the restaurant and was greeted by Jouji, who was wearing a brand new chef's uniform which also had been designed to do as a business suit if the need so arose; with black cuffs and a double-breasted chest area on the top, midnight blue pants and a black apron.

"Mr. Ryuho! Thank you for coming," Jouji said as he shook Ryuho's hand then spied the decorated wine bottle. "Ah, you brought that for me?" Jouji asked.

"Why yes, a present on your new position," Ryuho said, handing the bottle over and smiling as the chef's eyes lit up.

"Mr. Ryuho! You have an exquisite taste in wine! And I didn't know you were of age to drink?!" Jouji stated, and then laughed at the last part. Ryuho took a moment to catch the subtle joke in what was just said and chuckled politely.

As they walked in, Ryuho looked around and saw that several of the decorations had been removed, the seating arrangements had changed and the place seemed to have a much lighter atmosphere as opposed to the serious one it held before.

"I see you've made a few changes to the place," Ryuho remarked as he looked around.

"Do you like it? I felt that there was too serious of an atmosphere here, even I couldn't eat here and any chef knows that if you can't eat at a place yourself, there's no point in asking others to do the same," Jouji explained as he lead Ryuho to the table.

As he sat down, he marvelled at the sheer feast that was laid out. "This really must have cost you a fortune to prepare," Ryuho stated as he watched the various waiters pour the wine he brought. He politely waved the bottle away as he waited for the cue to begin eating, before anything else happened, Jouji called for attention.

"Everyone, congratulations on an otherwise perfect first day open. All of you knew what happened today, so I'd like to pose a toast to Mr. Ryuho, whose judgement and wisdom will see us through the hardest times," Jouji said aloud, lifting his glass afterwards and saying, "Cheers!"

Ryuho knew he would have to speak so he simply stood and addressed everyone. "Thank you, Jouji, for your kind words, but the real thanks is for everyone here, you all worked hard and I'm pleased to say that the backing I have placed in this establishment is indeed well placed. I hope you all keep up the good work," he said, smiling politely as he did.

The group instantly erupted with thanks and agreements to his statements. After that, the group began to eat the food that was on the table in front of them. A jovial atmosphere settled over the feasting group as they talked among themselves.

* * *

Kazuma looked around at the dirty bowls of rice that now lay scattered around the table and scowled. _Sometimes I really wish that Kanami were here, I haven't got the first clue to this housekeeping stuff she does…_

Kazuma moved the bowls over to the sink, mimicking what little he remembered from living with Kanami. After this he moved over to his bed and laid down, closing his eyes he thought about Kanami.

"_Kazu-kun?"_ Kanami's light voice echoed deep within Kazuma's mind.

"_Kanami?"_ Kazuma thought back.

"_Oh, Kazu-kun! Where are you now? Why haven't you come around lately?"_ her voice replied.

"_I've been busy, what about you? How you been doing?"_ Kazuma's mind replied.

"_Oh not much, just working on the farm, I'll show you,"_ Kanami's voice echoed one last time before Kazuma found himself witnessing her memories.

* * *

A cacophony of noise, so loud that Kazuma had the urge to cover his ears despite the impossibility of such an action, echoed through the air. Seeing the world through Kanami's eyes was a strange experience, even though all he could clearly see was a whirlwind of different coloured feathers. The cacophony, which Kazuma realised was the panicked clucking of many chickens, led him to the conclusion that Kanami was in the hen house.

When Kazuma blinked and nothing happened, he simply 'sat back' to enjoy the ride.

After a few frantic minutes spent in among the clucking and flying feathers, Kanami finally succeeded in capturing the chicken that the woman in charge of the farm had carefully pointed out. She had told Kanami that this particular hen had gone broody and was to be separated from the others for a while until she started laying eggs again.

Exiting the hen house, Kanami took the broody chook to a small cage designed just for such an event and placed the fowl inside. That job done, Kanami headed towards the woman's house to inform her that she was finished and to ask if there was another job that needed doing before she went back out to pile hay. Just as the woman's house came into view, so did something unexpected.

Nearly all of the workers were walking towards the same house she was headed for, the two newcomers walking in the middle of the group. Wondering what was going on, Kanami picked up her pace to join them at the woman's doorway. One of the workers knocked on the door and the woman answered; the two having a short, hurried discussion that Kanami could not hear.

After a minute or two, the woman nodded and the man began chivvying everyone else away, yelling at them to get back to work and giving Kanami a clear path to the house. Jogging forwards, Kanami caught the woman just as she was shutting the door.

"Excuse me," Kanami said, catching the woman's attention, "but could you please tell me what's going on?"

"I'm not quite sure of that myself, to be honest," the woman replied, gesturing for Kanami to come inside.

Kanami accepted the unspoken invitation and walked deeper into the house, spotting Ranma and Ryoga at the table and joining them, sitting on the opposite side.

"Hey, Kanami," Ranma said, giving the young girl a lazy, half-wave.

This made Ryoga look up from where he had been sitting slumped with his head bowed. "Who?" he asked, confused. His eyes quickly fell upon the young girl with the long, light brown hair and he mouth an, 'oh'. Putting his left elbow on the table and leaning his head upon his hand, Ryoga's fingers found the slightly rough, cotton texture of the bandages and he jerked his head in surprise. "What the… Bandages?" he murmured.

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you fell over and split your head on a rock yesterday, remember?"

"I did? I remember stepping backwards, then falling and then…nothing. Nothing until that horrible nightmare," the Lost Boy said, whispering the last part while suppressing a shiver that raced up his spine. "So who patched me up?"

Ranma jabbed his thumb at Kanami. "You have her to thank for lookin' after you."

"You did that?" He watched as she nodded shyly. "Oh, well, thanks, I guess I owe you one. I'm Ryoga Hibiki," Ryoga said, extending his hand and being careful not to use any of his formidable strength when Kanami shook it.

"Hello, I'm Kanami Yuta," she said, walking over to Ryoga to inspect the bandages that were still wrapped around his head. "I'll have to change these soon," she said softly, noticing that the white strip of cloth had a small reddish-brown stain on it as well as being generally dirtier than bandages should.

Ryoga fidgeted a bit under her gentle probing, glaring at Ranma when he caught sight of the pigtailed boy's smirk.

* * *

Kazuma slowly opened his eyes as the image faded into darkness, guessing that Kanami had woken up.

He sighed, the knowledge that Kanami was safe and happy flooding his being. The two boys seemed a little strange, but there were not many people who weren't strange in some way in the Lost Ground. They seemed trustworthy enough for him not to worry about them being near Kanami, so he felt no need to go rushing to protect her.

"I guess you found a couple of new friends, huh, Kanami?" Kazuma said to himself, smiling slightly.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** The rabid cabbits are coming, run for the carrot patches and defend them with your lives!!! What was that? A false alarm did you say? You have a new message for me to read out? Ahem: **FantomoDrako** and **Renegade Bladesman** wish to inform you that they do not own Ranma ½ or s-CRY-ed. They also wish to issue this warning: Please keep your cabbit firmly secured and supplied with a steady stream of carrots to prevent worldwide mayhem. Thank you and have a carrot-filled day.

**FantomoDrako:** Yes, I actually wrote half of this chapter! Take that, slackness of the second chapter! I wrote…all the Ranma ½ sections of this. (Those being the start and end of this chapter if you didn't already catch that.

Milae: I hope you are reading this, as I did not have a chance to respond. If you liked the third chapter, please give this story another chance; neither of us indulge in character-bashing and we had perfectly legitimate reasons for writing that scene as we did. We would have explained them to you, but we had no way to contact you and I can only hope that you see this.

Please, if you have read this chapter, leave a review and tell us your thoughts.

**Renegade Bladesman:** You mean to tell me that they cloned Ryo-ohki?! AND MADE HER RABID?!?! Hmmm… I knew I shouldn't have given that idea to Washu, I mean really who would seriously entertain the notion of world domination by destroying the carrot market…

Anyway, yes, I have written Ryuho actually as a businessman who is using his father's money to help rebuild the Lost Ground, as per his childhood wishes. I could have completely finished the fight during the flashback with Ryuho going into stage three with Zetsuei but I really didn't feel like going that detailed again, not for something that is now unimportant.

Also, Milae, if you're reading this, Fantomo's words before are the exact truth, both of us wanted to reply and explain our position on the whole Ranma and Ryoga situation in the previous chapter however you didn't allow us to contact you so yeah, I hope you give this story another chance.

Well I'd better shut up, considering I've now got chapter four to worry about… Later everyone

P.S. I eat flames with flamers… Accompanied by cabbit picked carrots.


	4. Revelation

"Hey, Kanami, can you tell us what an 'Alter User' is?" Ranma asked, frowning as he recalled the men who had accused - mainly Ryoga - of being such a thing. Ranma and Ryoga had instantly become wary at the men's hostile demeanours and were prepared to duke it out or flee if they got violent.

The men must have sensed their intentions and seen their confused looks as they had backed down at that point, asking the pair if they were Alter Users in a more civil way. When the two martial artists had replied that they had no idea what an Alter User was, the men had decided to let the woman in charge of the farm handle the situation and so had formed a guard around the two boys as they escorted them there.

"So, you two really don't know about Alter powers?" the woman of the farmhouse asked the two.

"Uh… No…" Ranma said.

"What are you talking about?" Ryoga asked in turn.

"I'm not sure if you aren't Alters, those powers we saw you use…" she began, remembering the tornado and recounting what the men told her they saw. "Normal humans can't do such things so if you're not Alters, what are you?" she asked, staring them dead in the eye.

"We're martial artists," Ranma started, mirroring the woman's gaze. "Those attacks are the result of hard training and exercise," he added, standing up and assuming his usual confident pose. Ryoga just sat there, eyes closed and a look of discomfort painted upon his face.

"Are you sure? No martial art I've heard of gives you the ability to split rock or cause a tornado," the woman responded, sitting down opposite the boys. "Only Alter powers are capable of such destructive force," she added.

"Well, that still doesn't explain just what an Alter User is," Ryoga piped up, looking up at the group that sat around the table.

"Well, I'm no expert but Alter Users disintegrate things to make other things. Best example I can think of is that Kazuma…" the woman began before she noticed Kanami's face, which held a slight look of worry and discomfort.

"Hmmm? What can this Kazuma do?" Ranma asked, now curious about the entire subject.

"Kazu-kun changes his right arm, covering it in armour," Kanami explained quietly, slightly sinking into the chair she was sitting on.

"Well… that doesn't explain much at all," Ranma said quietly, sitting back down.

"I said we weren't experts," the woman of the farmhouse reiterated.

"What can we do now? It's obvious you don't trust us now," Ryoga asked, looking at the woman.

"Well… You can continue working on the cottage then, that way we can keep an eye on you," she replied, nodding to reassure herself of her decision.

"Easy enough," Ranma stated confidently, smiling in his usual cocky way.

"Good, now there's still a few hours of daylight left, so go out there now and get working," the woman commanded, to which Ranma and Ryoga both marched outside and around to the small cottage that was nearby.

"Hmm, not much seems to need doing," Ryoga said, looking it over after seeing the newly repaired roof on it.

"Yeah right!" Ranma retorted, "There are still holes in the walls that we need to fill, not to mention the floor needs some work…" he added, vaguely gesturing towards the areas he mentioned. Before long, the two had started work, Ranma was outside, pulling off warped or broken boards and replacing them with new ones, he kept any boards that weren't broken too badly because he figured that they could be used for something.

Ryoga was inside, doing the same with the floorboards. Though he was having a slightly harder time due to the thoughts that plagued his memory. _Akane… It's been three days, you're probably worried sick about Ranma by now… Why can't it be me?_ he thought as a scowl crept onto his face as he thought more on how Akane always worried about Ranma and only ever treated him like a slightly unwelcome guest, unless he was in his pig form.

"Ryoga? How you doing in there, man?" Ranma asked from outside one of the windows while inspecting the sill for any real need to repair it. On focusing his eyes on Ryoga he could sense that something was bugging him. Remembering the way their last fight attracted attention he felt it wiser to leave well enough alone and went back to looking for boards to replace.

Inside, Ryoga soon stopped as he noticed that no more floorboards needed attention. This however only increased the thoughts of home that still weighed his mind down. He sat down in a dark corner of one of the rooms and curled up as his mind raced like a rabbit being hunted by a fox, full of thoughts of Furinkan and Akane; specifically her kind hugs and affectionate words she held for his cursed form – P-chan.

The woman of the farmhouse came out not long after the sun turned the sky to a dull orange to inform them that dinner is ready. Ranma smiled wearily, he had noticed that there was a family of strange looking squirrels that were trying to burrow into the roof of the cottage and had spent the rest of the afternoon chasing them away.

As Ryoga exited the cottage, the look on his face was enough to make everyone keep their distance as they thought that if they tried to say something he may only lash out with the rage that burned in his eyes. The meal came and went with no discussion, Kanami helped with the chores after before retiring to a small room.

"Uh, does Kanami live here too?" Ranma asked, after noticing her retire.

"Yes, she does. Her house was destroyed during the Second Upheaval and that no-good Kazuma hasn't found her a new place yet," the woman replied, taking several dishes out.

"Really? So he's left her all alone? That's just not right," Ranma said quietly, before feeling the holes burning from where Ryoga was staring at him.

"Just as it's not right for you to be stringing Akane and those other poor girls along, you heartless jerk!" Ryoga stated, pure fury lacing the sentence together.

"What's this?" the woman enquired, coming out and seeing Ryoga standing and a murderous look in his eye.

"This jerk has poor Akane as his fiancée! He also has three other girls as his fiancées, he keeps stringing them along all the time and he's too chicken to finally choose one!" Ryoga yelled out, making Ranma tense with the rage that filled the room, all emanating from Ryoga.

"Now listen here, mister! There'll be no fighting here, unless you want to sleep outside tonight!" the woman interjected before the situation became too heated, to which Ryoga calmed down enough so he would not be yelling by reflex.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," he said softly before fetching his backpack and heading for the door. "I'll sleep in the cottage, at least then I won't be in the same house as this polygamous jerk," he added, venom seething from each word before he departed.

"Ranma…" the woman began before the warrior could slip into the spare room.

"Yeah?" Ranma responded.

"It's not really my business, but if what he says is true, then you're in for quite a rough time. I know you're young still, but marriage and engagements are not to be taken lightly. One day you'll go to actually make the choice and find that you have no one to choose from," the woman advised, the knowledge instilled in the words striking Ranma.

"Thanks," is all he could say as he sulked into the room for the night.

As he undressed and slipped into bed, Ranma began to think of home. _Pops, how are you doing now? It's been three days, I'm not sure where I am, I hope you're doing alright,_ he thought as though telepathically talking with his dad. Soon after, his fatigue claimed him and he fell into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile, Ryoga had begun to settle down in the only room of the small cottage that had a door. The window was just at the right angle from where he unrolled his sleeping bag, allowing him to effortlessly gaze out into the heavens above, as he closed his eyes a couple of stray tears rolled down his cheeks as he whispered softly, "Akane…"

Ranma was the one to have the deep dream that night, his mind so full of thoughts of home that they spilled over and shaped his dreams.

* * *

The morning had started normally enough at the Tendo Dojo; Akane was out in the dojo training while Nabiki and Soun Tendo sat at the table. Kasumi was already preparing breakfast and Genma was sitting out on the veranda, meditating.

Ranma found himself moving down the stairs in a chipper mood, greeting everyone with a big smile, only to meet scowls and sneers in reply.

"Well you're certainly lively this morning, boy," Genma started as he stood up, his face full of disgust. "We're waiting for your reasons," he added, leering over Ranma; still sending a shiver of fear up his spine even though it was a dream.

"I've finally decided to choose who I will marry!" the exclamation came, only to be met with sighs from all but Soun, who instantly broke down in tears when the message was fully processed. "Huh? I thought you'd be all happy about this?" Ranma found himself questioning the less than desirable moods.

"Tch, whatever, I'm going to train before breakfast," Ranma said casually before walking outside and catching sight of Akane as she walked back in, her face and body glistening from sweat. As she saw him she instantly snapped her face away with a very forceful "Hmph".

"What did I do?" Ranma asked, but was ignored until she drew level with him. He grabbed her arm to stop her, only to be struck in return and sent flying into the wall.

"Leave me alone! You worthless jerk!" Akane's words spewed forth, deeply wounding the proud mood that Ranma had in the dream.

Ranma couldn't stay there and let the fact she'd wounded his pride be known. As he leapt the fence and fled at such speeds that blurred the cityscape of Furinkan, soon he happened upon Ukyo's okonomiyaki restaurant. _Ucchan! I hope she's there!_ Ranma thought as he heaved the door open to be confronted with a startling sight.

Ukyo was up and dressed, but she was holding someone. Ranma couldn't make out who it was until she flicked the internal lights on; he froze when he saw who it was. Ryoga was there, holding Ukyo in an affectionate embrace whilst being completely oblivious to his new guest. Soon after the embrace came a very passionate kiss, and it was during this time that Ranma noticed the rings on their fingers. His heart instantly sank as he fled the shop, the original wound to his heart being deepened.

As his sight restored itself, he found himself within earshot of the Cat Café, he could hear Shampoo and Mousse talking so he stopped and listened in on their conversation in case they knew what was going on.

"Stupid Ranma, he always leave Shampoo hanging. He no good as husband," Shampoo's broken speech echoed around the area.

"Oh my dear Shampoo, forget that jerk, you've got me now," Mousse's voice came in reply, followed by a giggle from Shampoo.

"Silly Mousse, you talking to bucket, but Shampoo always love that," Shampoo said, still giggling away.

"Good thing that we're getting married this evening, I've also made sure that no-good Ranma will not be coming," Mousse stated, at this point Ranma had peeked over the fence into the backyard of the Cat Café and saw that Shampoo and Mousse were in an embrace.

Now certain that he couldn't take any more, Ranma sulked back to the Tendo's, only to find his stuff packed outside the front gate and his father standing there.

"Well boy, I see you're back from running away again," Genma said as he hefted his backpack on.

"Pop, what the hell is going on? Why is everyone engaged or married now?" Ranma asked, the pain evident in his voice.

"Well boy, you took so long to decide which of these girls you were going to make your life with that they simply got sick of waiting and moved on… Even Akane did… You really are a disappointment boy, from now on you're fending for yourself because you've failed me, you're not worthy of the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts. You're dead to me," Genma coldly stated before walking off.

Before Ranma could fathom his thoughts, the gate opened and Akane walked out. She saw Ranma and sighed.

"You're still here? Get lost, you're not my fiancé anymore!" she stated coldly before Tatewaki Kuno arrived, to be greeted by a very passionate embrace.

"Ha! I, Tatewaki Kuno, have succeeded in gaining the heart of the fair Akane Tendo and have decided to abandon the pig-tailed girl," he stated, pointing his bokken at Ranma. "I have also come to deliver a message to you, Ranma Saotome. My sister Kodachi wishes nothing more to do with you, she has seen you for the wicked being you really are," he also stated before turning and leaving with Akane.

At this point everything went black for the martial artist.

* * *

Ranma woke up suddenly, his body drenched in sweat. His breathing was erratic and his heart felt so heavy that he couldn't see any sense in living on with such pain. His entire body felt numb, as though being deprived of something more important than his own life. Ranma's mind would not stop racing for what seemed an eternity.

He began to relax about an hour after awakening, the realisation that it was a dream setting in. _Is that what's going to happen if I don't make the choice? Will I really end up all alone in the world with my greatest rivals taking them all away from me? Akane, I'm so sorry…_ he thought as he returned to sleep.

Morning dawned upon the farmhouse and the occupants were stirring with extra energy, that is, all occupants aside from Ranma. As he shifted out to the table after being called several times for breakfast he noticed the energetic atmosphere that greeted him outside of the threshold of his quarters.

"Why's everyone so excited?" the young warrior asked sleepily, taking a seat and beginning to eat the small serving of rice that was set in front of him.

"We'll soon be having a visitor," the woman replied, clearing other plates from the table and waiting for Ranma to finish with his.

"Huh? Who?" Ranma asked, yawning as he roused himself from the light meal.

"Miss Kiryu," Kanami chirped brightly as she skipped past the fatigued boy.

"Miss Kiryu? She sounds like a teacher…" Ranma remarked before laughing softly to himself.

"She is," the woman of the farmhouse replied to the statement before continuing, "Kanami here is fourteen and she hasn't been given any formal education," she added, to which Ranma's face lit up.

"You mean that for all this time she's been lucky enough to not have school?! Man, where do I sign up for that?" he said without thinking, only to be met with a very serious stare from the woman.

"She's had to take care of that Alter User husband of hers, so she's already learned what grown women should know, but she hasn't had the opportunity to go through school and that is just wrong," she said, leering over Ranma with a serious stare that threatened to bore holes clear through the hapless fighter.

"Uh… Okay…" Ranma hesitantly replied before putting on his hard hat and walking outside to the cottage, where he was greeted by a slightly downhearted Ryoga. Being downhearted was a fairly normal state for the Lost Boy, so Ranma made no comment on his companion's mood.

"We need to fix the front door," Ryoga blandly stated.

Taking a quick glance to assess the door in question, Ranma replied, "It doesn't look that bad to me."

"It needs fixing, trust me," he insisted, looking a little more lively as he prepared to argue.

Ranma rapped his knuckles on the thick wood, producing a solid thudding noise. "Seems nice an' sturdy, are ya sure we gotta fix it?" he asked, not looking forward to spending another day repairing something. When would he get some time to train? Of course, being in constant close proximity to Ryoga would be better than any training he could do by himself; fighting the Lost Boy was a great workout.

Ryoga frowned at the pigtailed teen. "Yes, it's a sturdy door, but there are a lot of small holes in it. The wind whistles through them and the noise pierces right into your ears. There's only one door inside and it's in need of replacing, it looks as though someone hacked at it with an axe for a bit," he explained, irritation creeping into his tone. Ryoga had woken up at some point during the night to what sounded like a thousand souls shrieking in agony. Ryoga knew it was only the wind, but his imagination would not be ignored and Ryoga had been forced to cover his ears with his thick sleeping bag in an effort to drown out the eerie wailing. He was thankful that it had not taken him long to nod off again.

"I guess we can use some of the old boards we saved from the walls and floor to nail over the holes," Ranma said with a sigh.

The two teenage boys set to work on the front door. It did not take them long to finish and for that Ranma was happy. They had broken up some of the old boards by splitting them with their hands and nailed the small pieces over the holes on the inside of the door so that, simply by looking at it, you couldn't tell that the door was patched. The only door that remained inside the cottage was proving a much tougher challenge, however.

The majority of the side of the door that faced into the bedroom was a giant mass of splinters of varying lengths. It really did look, to Ranma, just as Ryoga had described: as if someone had hacked at it with an axe, and a rather blunt one at that. The door was a collection of strange looking scrape-like indentations that continued along the span of the door, mostly in the middle section, that reached halfway through the thick wood.

Ranma shivered at the thought of what might have happened to cause the door to end up in such a state. Now, Ranma wasn't a squeamish person, but he knew that it had to be something terrible to drive a person to do that to a door.

"I don't think there's much we can salvage from this," Ryoga commented, standing beside his pigtailed companion as they stared at the ruined door.

Though Ranma didn't like agreeing with the Lost Boy, he knew the other spoke the truth. "So we're gonna scrap the whole door?"

Ryoga shrugged and said, "We can't do much else with it. Let's head back to the farm and grab what we need to build another door."

Once they were out of the cottage and walking towards the farm, Ranma inclined his head in Ryoga's direction. "Hey, Ryoga, do you even know how to build a door?" Ranma asked, his gaze sliding across to rest on Ryoga's face.

"Do you?" Ryoga fired back, neatly sidestepping the question.

Ranma dithered for a moment before glaring. The young Saotome had never been very good with mind games, especially those that used verbal fencing to achieve the desired result. "It can't be that hard," he grumbled, recalling the various bits of housing he had fixed since moving in with the Tendos.

Ryoga shrugged again, but remained silent.

Sweet trills of birdlife were the only things that could be heard by the two boys. Some clouds were beginning to sweep slowly across the vast expanse of the sky, darkening the ground beneath them, uncaring of the creatures that crawled upon the earth they blanketed.

Ryoga absently scratched his head, the bandages feeling itchy. "Hey, where's my bandanna?" he asked suddenly, his eyes wide as he immediately came to a halt.

"Huh?" Ranma eloquently replied.

Ryoga spun in front of Ranma and grabbed the front of his shirt, holding Ranma up so that the tips of his toes barely brushed the ground. "Where. Is. My. Bandanna?!" Ryoga ground out vehemently, stressing each word with a threatening undertone.

"Back off, man!" Ranma said, locking his hands around Ryoga's wrists and attempting to prise his shirt loose. It was a futile effort. In terms of raw power, Ranma was outmatched by Ryoga and so had no chance of forcing the Lost Boy to slacken his grip. Not wanting Ryoga to get a hand around his throat, Ranma placed both of his feet on Ryoga's abdomen and pushed. With the leverage from his legs, Ranma swung his body up and over Ryoga's head, landing while facing Ryoga's back. As Ryoga was still gripping Ranma's shirt, Ranma hopped backwards, yanking Ryoga off his feet to land heavily on his back, the Lost Boy's hands letting go of Ranma's shirt on reflex.

Ryoga leapt up and cracked his knuckles, scowling at the pigtailed fighter.

Ranma was itching for a good workout, but he knew that another fight would only get both of them into more trouble. Mrs. Yoshi, the farm lady, did not trust them after their last fight. Ranma had no wish to discover what she would do if they fought again with what she had called 'Alter powers'.

Just as Ryoga was about to take a step forward, Ranma put his hands up and waved them frantically in front of himself. "Wait, stop! If we fight, we'll be accused of being those Alter thingies again!" he said loudly, not quite shouting.

Ryoga continued to scowl, but backed down, easing out of his stance. "Fine, I won't leave you mangled by the roadside, but you better tell me where my bandanna is!"

"I don't _know_, Ryoga," Ranma replied in an exasperated manner.

"Um, excuse me…" a soft voice hailed the pair. Kanami Yuta stood a few feet away holding a picnic basket.

"Hey, Kanami, what's up?" Ranma greeted, grinning at her disarmingly.

Ryoga put a hand behind his head and rubbed the back of his neck in a nervous gesture, trying not to look as though he had been about to tear Ranma a new one. "Hello, Kanami."

"I was just on my way to bring you some lunch, but if you're busy…" she said, trailing off while tilting her head to one side.

Ranma instantly bounded to her side and eased the basket out of her hands with the thievery skill of long hours of practise. "Us? Busy? No, not at all," he insisted cheerily. He walked to the side of the road and plunked himself down on the grass, eagerly lifting the cloth that covered the basket's contents and reaching in for something.

_Straight for the food,_ Ryoga thought, rolling his eyes. _And he calls ME a pig!_ Ryoga turned to Kanami and quietly apologised for Ranma's behaviour, feeling somewhat responsible for some reason.

"It's okay," she said, "I hope you both like it. I need to get back to the farm now. Goodbye!" With that, the young girl walked back the way she had come, a slight spring in her step.

Vaguely wondering what had made Kanami so happy, Ryoga pushed the thought to one side, where it was promptly forgotten, and sat on the other side of the basket. Upon seeing Ranma devouring a sandwich, Ryoga realised that the basket contained half a dozen of them. He quickly snatched three, not wanting Ranma to eat any of his. Ryoga knew that due to the upbringing the pigtailed boy had suffered under his father, he had almost no manners and took whatever food was available, usually regardless of anyone else but himself.

The pair spent a short while sitting on the grass and eating in silence. Once the sandwiches had been eaten, Ranma rummaged around in the basket for anything else. His search yielded a few rice balls and a couple of bottles of water. He handed one to Ryoga while staring intensely into the liquid inside his own. It struck him then how wonderfully fortunate they had both been to have stayed dry ever since they had arrived in this strange place. Ranma tried not to dwell on that fact in case he jinxed the both of them. If the people here couldn't accept their special techniques as the martial arts moves they were, how would they react if the two boys suddenly became a little black piglet and a busty redheaded girl?

They continued eating in silence until they drank the last of their water, using it to wash down the sticky rice.

"Not bad," Ranma commented. "Nowhere near Kasumi's level of skill, but I've had much worse."

Ryoga shot him an angry glare. "If you're referring to Akane's cooking…" he trailed off, letting the unspoken threat hang in the air.

Ranma got to his feet and started walking towards the farm. "C'mon, you've gotta admit that she's a terrible cook and should be kept outta the kitchen at all costs," he argued in a mild tone as though stating that the sky was indeed blue. He picked up the pace as Ryoga started to pursue him for insulting Akane.

After a few seconds of running, they arrived at the farm and went around to the front door to see if Mrs. Yoshi was there. They could hear voices within, so Ranma stepped inside closely followed by Ryoga. Mrs. Yoshi was there along with Kanami, but there was another woman with them who had dark blue-black hair that reached just passed her shoulder-blades, plain but clean clothing and a strange necklace that looked like it was carved from some type of crystal or marble, Ranma wasn't sure.

All three females appeared to be absorbed in their conversation and Ranma didn't want to risk incurring their wrath by interrupting. He was not exactly a well of patience, however, and stood there tapping his foot which only served to irritate Ryoga further.

Using all the stealth he possessed, Ryoga positioned his left foot over Ranma's right – the one he was tapping – and brought his foot down hard, crushing Ranma's toes under his heel. To Ranma's credit, he didn't utter a sound aside from a barely audible sharp intake of breath, but he did stop tapping after shooting Ryoga a sour look, leaving the young Hibiki's mood quite improved. While the interaction was silent, the movement alerted the three females to their presence.

"Are these the two you were telling me about, Kanami?" the lady with the necklace asked.

"Yes, Mimori," Kanami replied, sighing with disappointment at the continuing overt animosity between the boys.

"Well, I'm glad I could meet them before dinner," Mimori replied with a gentle yet serious look on her face.

The group moved out to the dining table where everyone sat down. Kanami set out glasses and a pitcher of water for everyone to partake in during the upcoming discussion.

"So, you want to know what an 'Alter User' is, right boys?" Mimori asked in her light voice.

"Yeah," Ranma replied, half-lazing in the chair.

"All we know is they use things called 'Alter Powers', though we have no idea how they actually work," Ryoga chimed in, half-glaring at Ranma with an overconfident smile etched upon his face.

"Okay, this will take a while but I'll explain it all," Mimori said, sighing slightly as she began to recall every piece of information she held about the intricacies of Alter Power and its innermost workings.

"Isn't there a short way to explain it?" Ranma asked, sensing that it would take some time to learn about Alters.

"This will do you good, Ranma, at least it'll be something you can say you actually learned, unlike your schooling!" Ryoga taunted.

"So? At least I go to school…" Ranma retorted quietly. Before he could say anything more he was silenced by a glare from Mrs. Yoshi.

"Basically, Alter Power is the use of spiritual power to destroy and re-create matter," Mimori started, taking a sip of water before continuing.

"The resulting shape, known as an Alter, is unique to each person. It is this formation that has all the power, which the user controls telepathically," she added before being interrupted.

"So basically, if you fight the user and not the Alter, you'll win against them?" Ranma asked, now being interested in this possibly vital bit of information in terms of strategy.

"Yes and no," Mimori replied before continuing to explain. "Some Alters form on the body of the user, so if you want to fight the user, you have to go through the Alter," she added.

"Like that no-good Kazuma," Mrs. Yoshi spoke up.

"Yes, Kazuma's Alter is his right arm, it becomes his weapon which he can do tremendous damage to anyone or anything with," Mimori elaborated.

"I see," Ranma said, slouching back down into his chair.

"Well, that's all I can say for now, I actually came here to teach Kanami," Mimori said, finishing off her glass of water and standing up. Kanami nodded and went into her room and soon returned with a small notebook and several pencils. Mrs. Yoshi ushered the boys outside as the lesson began.

"Wait, so that was Miss Kiryu?" Ranma asked in slight surprise.

Ryoga rolled his eyes and replied, "Obviously."

A few seconds passed before Ranma remembered something. "Hey, we never asked that lady about the wood for the door!"

"She did look kind of busy," Ryoga reasoned, though he, too, was frowning at the fact that they didn't get what they came for.

"Now what are we supposed to do?" the pigtailed boy asked. He had no manga with him and he hadn't seen a single television, so he was at a loss as to how to fill in his spare time. He normally would've asked Ryoga to spar with him, but he was unsure if that was wise. Surely it couldn't hurt if they restricted themselves to the basics, no special techniques? He was about to ask Ryoga, but the bandaged boy interrupted him.

"If these Alter powers are basically spiritual energy that's controlled telepathically, then why did they call my Bakusai Tenketsu and your Hiryū Shōten Ha Alter powers?" Ryoga asked, not really directing the question at Ranma, but seemingly asking the air in general; musing out loud.

"If you ask me, I think they're just scared of anythin' that's different," Ranma said, answering anyway. "Since they don't have the same kind of martial techniques that we do, they label it something that they do know."

Ryoga gaped at the other boy. "Wow, Ranma, that sounded intelligent," he said in awe.

"Watch it, pork butt!" Ranma growled out.

"We may as well go and find the foreman and ask him about the wood," Ryoga said, walking off in a random direction.

Ranma reached out and snagged Ryoga's collar at the base of the neck, swiftly redirecting his path so that he wasn't walking towards the creepy forest the two had ventured through to initially reach the farm. Ignoring his companion, who was now blushing in embarrassment and anger, Ranma wandered into the construction area while making sure that Ryoga didn't walk off accidentally.

A few minutes after beginning their search, Ranma found the foreman walking back towards the farmhouse.

"Excuse me, Mr. Foreman?" Ranma asked as he moved into the foreman's field of view.

"I'm on break now, make it quick!" the foreman snapped in reply, wiping his forehead with a towel that was draped around his neck.

"Uh, we're out of wood to make a door for the cottage," Ranma stated plainly, making a vague gesture in the direction of the cottage.

"You and us all, we're out of materials and we're waiting on the shipment that was due here yesterday. They say that bandits have taken the road and demand hefty taxes for anyone and anything that uses it," the foreman explained before moving forward slightly.

"So how long until we can get this finished?" Ryoga asked, eyeing off the trees nearby.

"I have no idea, we'd use the trees you're staring at lad, but we've no way to get them into the right size and shape for what we need." The foreman replied, slapping a hand on Ryoga's shoulder before moving off towards the farmhouse.

"Well, I guess we've got nothing else to do for now, let's see if Miss Kiryu is finished with Kanami," Ranma said after looking around at the now relaxing workers.

Moments later, the two fighters found themselves back in the dining room of the farmhouse. Mimori was finishing up her lesson with Kanami and was talking with Mr. and Mrs. Yoshi in the kitchen. The boys recognised Mr. Yoshi as the foreman they were speaking with earlier.

"…I doubt that I'm going to be back this way for a while now," Mimori's voice came out of the kitchen as she walked back out to the dining room.

"Yeah, the bandits barely let anyone through these days, it's oddly coincidental you got through," Mr. Yoshi said.

"They saw my pendant and wanted it, when I said that it was Ryuho who gave it to me they ran away," Mimori explained as she sat down at the table.

"Who's Ryuho?" Ranma blurted out, before receiving a slight nudge from Ryoga, who remained quiet but held a slight look of disgust on his face.

"Sorry, I'm only curious," Ranma whispered

"Ryuho is another Alter User, he worked with the special police unit of HOLY, which deals with Alter Criminals," Mimori began. "Ryuho is also one of the most powerful Alter Users in the Lost Ground…" she added before being interrupted.

"Lost Ground? Is that where we are?" Ranma asked.

"You didn't know?" Mimori asked in return.

"No, we didn't," Ryoga replied.

"So, how did you get here?" Mimori asked, now thoroughly interested in the circumstances of the boys' predicament.

"Well…" Ranma began, before reciting the whole series of events that lead them to that point, being interrupted on occasion by Ryoga when he felt it was necessary.

After the tale had finished, no one was sure what was what anymore.

"Well, there is only one thing I can do now," Mimori said with a serious look upon her face.

"What's that?" Ranma asked sceptically.

"You're coming with me until I can figure out what's going on," Mimori stated, staring hard at the boys. "You saw the fight between Ryuho and Kazuma and you're alive, but more than that, you say you were ripped here from your own homes, this is too much to just leave it be," she added, grasping her pendant lightly as her mind filled with frantic thoughts.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** "Fox, the King and Queen EarthWalker wanted to give you this message: Ranma ½ and s-CRY-ed do not belong to **FantomoDrako** or **Renegade Bladesman**, they are simply borrowing the characters for their own amusement. Well, that's it. Slippy out!"

**FantomoDrako:** If you guess where I started writing - and get it right - you deserve a medal for having a really good eye on spotting differences between writing styles!

It's a little saddening to note that we only received one review for last chapter. **Rey6** and **ashnjack**, I hope to hear from you this chapter! I missed you two last chapter, I really did. I hope you're reading this!

**Renegade Bladesman: **Well this is interesting, finally someone who can answer questions appears in the story.

Before I go on, I'd like to just say how much I enjoy working with **FantomoDrako** she's always full of ideas and helpful advice which is never unwelcome.

Anyway, sorry it's taken so long to update this time around, we're both incredibly as of late and there's been little time for us to work on this story.

So read and review already! (**Rey6**, **ashnjack**, Fantomo's right, we both missed your reviews last chapter, so we're both hoping that you're still with us.)

I eat flames and flamers... while throwing squeaky toys for a baby triceratops.


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